Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Sandisk's Dinesh Bahal

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/10/sandisk-interview/

Is solid state storage you're thing? We'll be getting a demo of hard drive swapping from Sandisk's vice president of retail product marketing, Dinesh Bahal, just after the break.

January 10, 2013 1:30 PM EST

Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here!

Continue reading Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Sandisk's Dinesh Bahal

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

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MetroPCS unveils 'simpler' 4G plans with unlimited data for $60

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/10/metropcs-unveils-simpler-4g-plans-with-unlimited-data-for-60/

MetroPCS has just announced new 4G LTE data plans for those who don't want to keep one eye on data usage or try to decipher the complexity of other offerings. You'll get unlimited talk and text with all three, and unlimited, 2.5GB and 500MB of 4G LTE hustle for $60, $50 and $40 respectively, all taxes in. You'll be able add a matching 4G device with the plan starting at less than a hundred bills up to the $499 Galaxy S III -- even the thickest of us can grasp all that. Check the source for more info.

Filed under: Wireless, Internet, Mobile

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Source: MetroPCS

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Give Your iPhone 5 a Pro-Quality Mic with the Zoom iQ5

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5974718/give-your-iphone-a-pro+quality-mic-with-the-zoom-iq5

The iPhone 5's capable of capturing really impressive video with its 8MP camera but the accompanying sound quality isn't all that great. But with this new add-on mic from Zoom, your iPhone 5 videos will finally have the audio they deserve.

The iQ5 is a Mid-Side stereo mic compatible with iOS 6.0 and above, connecting through an 8-pin Lightning port. It's central recording element rotates so you can film in both landscape and portrait. It can also be adjusted to pull both 90 and 120 degree fields as well as straight RAW audio and captures at 16-bit 44.1 kHz.

It will retail for $100 when it hits shelves later this year. Maybe Blue Microphones will have an updated version of its MIkey out before then.

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Polaroid's New Android Tablets Might Give Nexus Some Stiff Competition

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5974767/polaroids-new-android-tablets-might-give-nexus-some-stiff-competition

Polaroid has announced a new pair of Android tablets at CES. Their most obvious selling point is super-low pricing—but will their performance be able to stand up to the competition?

There are two new tablets—predictably, a 7-incher (M7) and a 10-incher (M10)—and when we say price is a big draw here, we really mean it. The little 'un is set to retail for $130 and the large one just $230. Super cheap, then, so if specs can match the price Polaroid could really be on to something.

The M10 packs a 10.1-inch 1,280 x 800 resolution screen, quad-core Cortex A7 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 16GB or storage, 5-MP rear camera, 2-MP front-facer, and HDMI-out. Running Jelly Bean it does, sadly, have a light Polaroid skin laid over the top, but at least that looks fairly crisp and clean—reminiscent of Windows 8, in fact.

Meanwhile the M7 offers a 7-inch 1,280 x 800 display, 1.6GHz dual-core A9 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB or storage, and a 2-megapixel front camera that sits to the left of the display. Once again, it's running Jelly Bean with Polaroid's skin over the top.

None of this is setting the world on fire, of course, but for the price the specs seem really solid. Engadget explains that it found the smaller tablet "very responsive when swiping through home screens and jumping in and out of apps", so it will be interesting to see how they stack up during real-world use. They might not quite pack all of the punch of Google's Nexus range—but they could well give it a run for its money. [Polaroid via Engadget and Engadget]

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Western Digital shows off upcoming WD Black hybrid drives, we go eyes-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/western-digital-shows-off-upcoming-wd-black-hybrid-drives/

As devices get thinner and thinner, there's no place in the world for chunky hard drives, and to that end Western Digital has been talking about bringing ultra-thin 5mm hybrid drive technology to the market. We just got a look at the new drives, which will be branded WD Black -- two 2.5-inch models consisting of a 500GB, 5mm thick (or thin) unit with 24GB of NAND memory, along with a 1TB, 7mm drive that also has 24GB of NAND. A spokesperson said that NAND could eventually go up to 32GB. There's no performance figures or pricing available yet, but WD has already started shipping copies of the new models to OEMs, and expects that they'll land in the laps of consumers within the next 6 months. For a brief video tour of the new products, head after the break.

Gallery: Western Digital WD Black hybrid drive

Continue reading Western Digital shows off upcoming WD Black hybrid drives, we go eyes-on (video)

Filed under: Storage

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Gigabyte shows off an extra-tiny desktop PC with a Core i7, April release date

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/gigabyte-shows-off-an-extra-tiny-desktop-pc-with-core-i7-due-in/

There was a surprise waiting alongside Gigabyte's Windows 8 tablet duo at CES: an exceptionally small desktop. The as yet unnamed mini PC is a minor marvel of engineering that's much smaller than a Mac mini at an 0.3-liter volume (10 fluid ounces), but still manages to cram in a Core i3, i5 or i7 processor. We're also looking at up to 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for heavy duty tasks. Expansion is about the only sacrifice, as there's just two USB ports, Ethernet and a rather curious choice of two HDMI ports on the pre-production model we saw. Gigabyte didn't have the system ready to test, but it should ship worldwide in April, with a price to be set later.

Filed under: Desktops

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Source: Engadget Chinese (translated)

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LG Ultra HD Touch Display hands-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/lg-ultra-hd-touch-display-hands-on/

We bet you're yawning at the mention of 4K TVs by now, but here's a slight twist on that high-res concept. LG is showing off the so-called Ultra HD Touch display at its CES booth. It's pretty much what it sounds like: a 4K TV with five-point multitouch. LG isn't demoing this product as a TV -- though technically it could work as your standard set; instead it has the Ultra HD Touch running an interactive program created by the French company Intuiface. We could tap to select and enlarge information on different periods of art history, and we could rotate and perform pinch-to-zoom with individual elements on-screen. We could also dive into a drawing app, which included different pen options for doodling directly on the display.

Obviously, this sort of educational setup would be perfectly suited for a museum, though LG hasn't committed to any particular application of this display. Essentially, the idea is to demonstrate that touch technology on a giant 4K TV is quite possible -- and pretty neat, if you ask us -- rather than to debut a new high-brow product. But we have a feeling there will be more of such setups to come. For now, at least, you can check out our hands-on video past the break.

Continue reading LG Ultra HD Touch Display hands-on (video)

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, LG

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Nuance Wintermute hands-on: a cross-platform, cloud-based personal assistant

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/nuance-wintermute-hands-on-a-cross-platform-cloud-based-person/

It's becoming increasingly clear that the next wave of mobile computing is going to be voice driven. Mobile assistants like Siri and Google Now are garnering plenty of media attention and earning legions of fans. Nuance, the company behind Dragon -- often cited as the gold standard in voice recognition software -- wants to make sure it doesn't get left behind after pioneering the art of speaking to your computer. Dragon Mobile Assistant was the first step towards that goal, but it stuck primarily to searches and a few simple tasks. After leaving our stage here at CES, the company was nice enough to take us back to a suite where it demoed a project codenamed Wintermute. Besides throwing a bone to William Gibson fans, the project aims to make Nuance's personal assistant truly personal and platform agnostic by building a profile of individual users in the cloud.

While clearly very much in the early stages, what we saw was none the less impressive. The mobile app, was able to easily recognize queries such as "what is the score of the Celtics game" and obey commands like "play music by the Rolling Stones." Nuance even threw in a bit of snide, Siri-like personality -- the assistant quipped about the rep being too young to listen to the Stones. That response was obviously triggered by the fact that the app knew Sean Brown, a senior manager at the company, was born well after the band's hey day.

Continue reading Nuance Wintermute hands-on: a cross-platform, cloud-based personal assistant

Filed under: Software, HD, Mobile

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Eyes-on with LG's streaming Smart Sound Bar

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/eyes-on-with-lg-streaming-smart-sound-bar/

Among the many, many things that LG is unveiling at CES this year is the curious addition of a sound bar with built-in video streaming. That still sounds like a contradiction of purpose to us, but the Smart Sound Bar, also known as the NB3730A, is more fascinating once you dive into the details. The large-sized bar pumps out 300W across its 2.1 channels, and its WiFi takes internet audio and video from CinemaNow, general internet radio, Netflix, Pandora and Vudu. Bluetooth audio is built-in as well. It's ultimately built for those who don't have an online-capable TV, Blu-ray player or media hub at their disposal -- a group whose ranks are thinning quickly, but certainly still exists.

We got a quick glance at the Smart Sound Bar for ourselves. From a design perspective, it's simple to operate and thin, if not exactly short. This won't be a good fit for that small TV in the basement, then, although it's perfect for that big wall-mounted set. We'd like to tell you how well it works in real life, but expo conditions dictate otherwise: LG unfortunately lacks an internet connection for the sound bar on demo, and an extra-crowded booth isn't the ideal environment for gauging audio quality. If you're mostly wondering whether or not it will fit into the living room decor, however, we've got a gallery for you below.

Gallery: LG Smart Sound Bar eyes-on

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, LG

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Samsung Galaxy S II Plus revealed with dual-core 1.2GHz CPU and Jelly Bean

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/10/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-plus/

Samsung just unleashed a new phone into the world, but you've probably heard of it before: it's the Galaxy S II Plus. The handset serves as a modest update to the original Galaxy S II, which contains a 4.3-inch WVGA (800 x 480) Super AMOLED Plus display, a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM and Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean). Naturally, you'll find an 8-megapixel camera on the rear, which is complimented by a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter. The Galaxy S II Plus will include 8GB of built-in storage, in addition to support for microSD cards up to 64GB in size. Expect to find HSPA+ (21Mbps) support across the 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100MHz bands, which will be augmented by GSM support for the 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz bands. Pricing and availability have yet to be announced for this refresh, but we'll be sure to let you know once we have additional details.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy S II Plus

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: Samsung

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Celestron's Virtuoso Telescope Mount Captures the Stars Above or Gigapixel Images Here On Earth

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5974701/celestrons-virtuoso-telescope-mount-captures-the-stars-above-or-gigapixel-images-here-on-earth

Celestron has taken its expertise in designing telescope mounts that can track and pan with the motion of the stars and created a cheaper, lightweight version called the Virtuoso that can also be used with a camera to capture massive multi-shot images.

The company is basically muscling its way into GigaPan's turf providing photographers who like capturing gigantic gigapixel images another automated tool. Powered by eight AA batteries the Virtuoso can automatically trigger the shutter on Canon EOS DSLRs, so photogs with Nikon or Sony gear will have to sit there and do it manually, but for $300 the precision mount all but guarantees that assembling a series of shots into one giant image will be a breeze.

[Celestron]

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Nikon J3 and S1 hands-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/nikon-j3-s1-hands-on/

Nikon's 1 series of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras may not be the first choice among professional photographers, but they're apparently selling like hotcakes, and they're a big hit at CES, too. Front and center in Nikon's booth, there's a pair of professional dancers practicing their craft on continuous shifts, surrounded by a ring of J3 and S1 bodies and a variety of colorful lenses. Both cameras look and feel very similar to Nikon's first model in this series, the J1.

There's a handful of new colors available, and the internals have gotten a bit of a boost, but all in all, the cameras would feel mighty familiar to any 1 series user. The 14.2-megapixel J3 is Nikon's premium model, if you can call it that, while the 10.1-megapixel S1 is the entry-level variant, with kit prices set at $600 and $500, respectively. Both cameras are set to ship next month -- catch all the specs at our announcement post, and jump past the break for a closer look in our hands-on.

Gallery: Nikon J3 and S1 hands-on

Continue reading Nikon J3 and S1 hands-on (video)

Filed under: Cameras, Nikon

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Kogan Agora phablet hands-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/kogan-agora-phablet-hands-on/

Kogan has released a budget-friendly netbook (back when netbooks existed), laptop and tablet, and now its got a new product to show us here at CES -- the Agora smartphone. It's verging on phablet territory with a 5-inch screen (800 x 480 resolution), and running the whole show is a dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 processor and half a gig of RAM. A 5-megapixel shooter with flash is found top-center on the back, and a 0.3-megapixel camera off to the right of the speaker grille on the front. Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich is the OS of choice here, kept alive by a 2,000 mAh battery nestled under the textured back panel. Right next to that power source is space for two SIMs, and a microSD slot to boost the 4GB of on-board storage (up to 64GB cards supported).

Those specs should tell you that the Agora isn't aimed at the high end, but despite that, the build quality is solid. The square handset looks alright, too. We liked the dimpled back panel and prominent metal Kogan logo, as well as the shiny dark grey rim holding it all together. It's not exactly a retina screen, but it's not notably terrible, and performance-wise, it ranged from slick to jittery depending on how fast and how much we were telling it to do. We'll save the Note II comparisons, apart from the only stat you really need to know -- the Agora smartphone costs $149 (£119 in the UK). Pre-orders are live on Kogan's website now, and units should be hitting hands mid-February or earlier. We're assured the launch will go ahead without a hitch (various difficulties prevented a previous phone from reaching market). Check out the gallery and hands-on video below for more info.

Kevin Wong contributed to this report.

Gallery: Kogan Agora phablet hands on

Continue reading Kogan Agora phablet hands-on (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Ubuntu Mobile Hands-Off: Stripped Down and Sleek

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5974642/ubuntu-mobile-hands+off-stripped-down-and-sleek

The world of mobile OSes is totally dominated by Android and iOS, but that hasn't kept Ubuntu from trying to sneak in. And finding a way into already dominated markets is kind of Ubuntu's strong suit.

We got to take a "hands-off" look at the new mobile OS running on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus. While the hardware won't hit for a year, the software's looking pretty smooth already.

Ubuntu's take on the mobile OS borrows a fair bit from desktop Ubuntu, as well as other mobile OSes, but it brings some new ideas to the table too. If you've ever used Ubuntu's Unity interface, you'll recognize the icon bar that slides out from the side. If you've ever used a smartphone, you'll recognize the notification bar that slides down from the top. But Ubuntu mobile takes that concept further than any of the other OSes out there.

One of the key design goals for the system was to eliminate the need for buttons. There are soft buttons on the screen, like Android, and no hard button, like Apple devices. Instead, everything—everything—slides out from the sides. The app menu slides out from the left, a slide from the right brings up previous apps, the top brings down settings, and the bottom brings up other assorted options like sharing.

Some other Ubuntu-specific quirks involve menus that require you to hold down your finger in a way that looks completely unlike anything in iOS or Android. It certainly looks weird, but it's hard to tell how it feels without some real hands-on. So far, Canonical's demos are "look but don't touch."

Ubuntu Mobile certainly appears interesting, and maybe it could shake up some of the mobile interface conventions we all take for granted. But even if it's the best OS ever, the lack of dedicated hardware until 2014 is going to make it a tough sell for a while. Hopefully it can still stand a chance. The mobile OS scene could use a little more variety.

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LG Smart Activity Tracker: This FuelBand Clone Is a Mashup of Every Wearable Gadget

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5974676/lg-smart-activity-tracker-this-fuelband-clone-is-a-mashup-of-every-wearable-gadget

LG's Smart Activity Watch is FuelBand look-alike—there's no denying it. And, yes, there are already a lot of new wearable fitness trackers. Well, LG crams the features of all of its competitors into one. And by the time it comes out this summer, the watch might add something everybody wants: A heart rate monitor.

The Smart Activity Tracker uses an accelerometer and GPS to measure your activity, and because it uses GPS it can tell how fast you're moving so it knows if you're running or walking or sitting at your desk. You can sync the date back to your phone, where a robust app displays your metrics. LG plans to add a heart-rate monitor, but hasn't promised it because it hasn't quite nailed measutrng pulse of a wrist.

But! Unlike other wearables, this fitness tracker talks back to your phone to tell you about incoming text messages and phone calls. Also, this tracker has a touchscreen so you can swipe through different types of information on it instead of the button on the FuelBand. Even more, the little gadget syncs with the exercise apps on LG's connected TVs so that you can see how many calories you're burning while you dance off the pounds.

We couldn't play with the tracker because the hardware on display at CES isn't final, but if LG can pull of the mashup, this thing will be incredible. LG says it hopes to have the Smart Activity Tracker ready for summer. There is no word on what it will cost.

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