Raspbmc's March update brings XBMC 12.1, fixes to Raspberry Pi

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/raspbmcs-march-update-brings-xbmc-12-1-fixes-to-raspberry-pi/

Just because you have a Raspberry Pi, and the know-how to change the world, doesn't mean you want to do everything the hard way. For those who haven't already applied the 12.1 update to XBMC running on their Raspberry Pi, the Raspbmc team is now eager to handle the dirty work for you. Wondering how easy it is to upgrade? Just reboot your Pi and wait about 15 minutes. Seriously, that's all the elbow grease required to receive a litany of fixes and enhancements in the latest version of XBMC as well as a number of specific patches for Raspbmc. Specifically, there is a newer version of HDMI-CEC, improved support for internet streams and third-party modules, and finally, a few security fixes.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Raspbmc.com

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Google Maps Engine Lite beta lets amateurs craft their own location sets

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/google-maps-engine-lite-beta-lets-amateurs-craft-their-own-pois/

Pros have long had access to Google Maps Engine if they need to highlight anything from local stores to natural resources. Today, Google is catering to the rest of us would-be cartographers with a beta for Google Maps Engine Lite. The web service lets everyday users draw objects and import locations for their own reference, whether it's plotting favorite hiking trails or pinpointing worthwhile places on an upcoming vacation. Map makers can stylize the maps and share them with others, if they like -- the Lite label mostly limits users to "small" spreadsheet imports and a maximum of three data sets for comparisons. As long as you can live within those prescribed boundaries, you can try the slimmed down engine right now.

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Via: Google Lat Long Blog

Source: Google Maps Engine Lite

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Final Fantasy V arrives on iOS, is unlikely to be the last

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/final-fantasy-v-arrives-on-ios-is-unlikely-to-be-the-last/

A touch iteration of the once SNES-bound Final Fantasy V has now appeared on the iTunes App Store, with a softer graphical lick, some new job classes (Gladiator, Cannoneer, Oracle and Necromancer) and an obligatory extra boss to test your leveling-up skills against. The price of four new costumes for your meteor-riding protagonists? Just shy of $16. Saving the world was never going to be cheap easy.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablets, Mobile

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Via: Destructoid

Source: Final Fantasy V (iTunes)

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Hands-on with MiiPC, the $99 kid-safe Android PC (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/27/miipc-hands-on/

It was only two days ago that ZeroDesktop launched MiiPC, a $99 kid-safe Android PC, and the Kickstarter campaign's already surpassed its $50,000 goal. To jog your memory, MiiPC is an attractive 4.7 x 4.7 x 3.1-inch desktop computer running Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). It's powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Marvell New Armada SoC with 1GB of RAM, 4GB of flash storage, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. The system features an SD card slot in front, a power button on top and a full array of ports in the back, including two USB 2.0, HDMI, analog audio I/O, Ethernet and power.

What makes this device so unique is the software, which is optimized for use with a large screen (up to 1080p), keyboard and mouse. It provides a desktop-class web browsing experience with Flash and runs standard Android apps. MiiPC supports multiple user accounts which can be controlled and monitored remotely in real-time using a companion app for iOS and Android. The idea is for parents to create a safe online environment for their kids by managing their access to the web and to apps. We got the chance to play with a prototype MiiPC yesterday -- read our impressions and watch out hands-on video after the break.

Gallery: ZeroDesktop MiiPC hands-on

Gallery: ZeroDesktop MiiPC screenshots

Gallery: ZeroDesktop MiiPC companion app

Filed under: Desktops

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AMD unveils game streaming platform with Radeon Sky Graphics

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/27/amd-cloud-game-streaming-radeon-sky-graphics/

AMD's taken some time at GDC to unveil Radeon Sky Graphics cards, the backbone of its cloud platform that streams games à la OnLive to PCs, Smart TVs, tablets and mobile devices. According to the outfit, the silicon is built upon its Graphics Core Next architecture, and is powered by its RapidFire tech to provide a "highly efficient and responsive" experience. Other details regarding the initiative are sparse, but it sounds like developers and cloud gaming companies will have to enlist the hardware before gamers can reap its benefits.

Update: Joystiq's gotten word that the Radeon Sky series includes a trio of enterprise-grade graphics cards, with the top-of-the-line Sky 900 model toting 6GB of GDDR5 memory, 3,584 stream processors and sporting a memory bandwidth of 480GB per second.

[Image credit: mnsc, Flickr]

Filed under: Gaming, AMD

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Flipboard launches user-created magazines, partners with Etsy (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/flipboard-user-created-magazines-etsy/

Everybody loves Flipboard, right? If you're a fan like us, rejoice -- your favorite social magazine just got a whole lot better. Today Flipboard for iOS is receiving a major update that will let you create and curate your very own magazines. It also brings a boatload of other improvements to the table including a content partnership with Etsy. An update to the Android version will follow shortly. We were able to take the new version of Flipboard for a spin and get a demo from CTO Eric Feng. Hit the break to dive into the details and watch our hands-on video.

Gallery: Flipboard user-created magazines hands-on (iPad)

Gallery: Flipboard user-created magazines hands-on (iPhone)

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Internet, Mobile, Apple, Facebook

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Source: Flipboard (iTunes App Store)

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These Six Regular People Just Got Invited To Use Google Glass (GOOG)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/six-regular-people-get-google-glass-2013-3

Earlier today, Google announced that it had picked the winners of its #ifihadglass campaign this week.

It will be sending out thousands of invites telling these lucky people that they can buy the Google Glass device for $1,500. 

Google just sent us a list of some of the winners along with the things they will do with Glass once they own a pair.  Here's the full email.

In February we asked people across Google+ and Twitter to tell us what they would do #ifihadglass, because we’re seeking a diverse group of Explorers to help us shape the future of Glass. Glass isn’t the sort of technology you can develop in a conference room -- we really need people to take it out into the world and see what they’d like to do with it across a wide range of hobbies, lifestyles, and environments.  

And now, the suspense is almost over -- the results are in! Over the next few days we’ll be contacting several thousand people over Twitter & Google+ to invite them to join the Explorer program.  

It’s been inspiring for the team to see such an enthusiastic response to Glass -- when you’re taking a moonshot this big, the encouragement and feedback along the way really helps a lot. And as we’d hoped, we’ve seen all sorts of ideas we never could have predicted -- here are a few fun ones:

• Sarah Hill (Columbia, MO) would take Glass to a VA hospital and let veterans see their war memorials

• Herschel Taghap (Seattle) would show people what it's like to be a line cook in a restaurant

• Shannon Rooney would travel to Japan and help her Grandma re-experience her homeland without leaving her home in the U.S.

• David Moriarty: improving doctor-patient interaction for clinical trials

• Anthony Brown (San Francisco, CA) is a zookeeper who would show penguin feedings with Glass

• Max Wood (Gray, GA) is a firefighter who would improve fire safety by using pre-fire planning maps

As always, you can keep in touch with Glass on its Google+ page. There are also a lot of Glass communities springing up, like this community for the Glass Explorer Edition or even the more grassroots Society of Glass Enthusiasts (with multiple regional chapters!).

SEE ALSO:&nbs! p;The 25 Most Creative People In Tech

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

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DICE+ launches $99 developer kit, pre-orders for $40 consumer model start this summer

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/dice-launches-99-dev-kit/

Game Technologies, the Poland-based company behind the little electronic die that is DICE+, has just announced a $99 developer edition that bundles a transparent-cased model along with its software development kit. As a reminder, the DICE+ is an inch-sized rubberized cube packed with Bluetooth, an accelerometer and a rechargeable battery, with the aim of bringing human interaction to electronic board games and beyond.

We had a look at a demo DICE+ here at the 2013 Game Developers Conference and it looks relatively unchanged from the one we saw at E3 last year. However, the microUSB port is now revealed via a sliding mechanism instead of a pull-out flap, which should result in a more balanced roll. Marketing director David Gatti also told us that the cube's internals have been revamped and simplified for more cost-effective production.

Filed under: Gaming

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Source: DICE+

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HP introduces Unreal Engine 4-ready 'turnkey solution' workstations, collaborating with ALT Systems

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/hp-workstations-gdc-2013/

Hewlett-Packard may not be well-known by consumers for creating the machines that power the industries that power the world we live in, but the company's workstation business does just that. From film to oil drilling to medicine, HP's workstations have their hands in a lot of pies -- and today, that expands more directly to yet another major industry: video games. With its Z1, Z820 and Z620 workstations, HP is collaborating with Epic Games, Autodesk, and ALT Systems to create what they're calling a "turnkey solution" to game development workstation woes. The three aforementioned units can be customized to arrive with a variety of variables, including Unreal Engine 4, Autodesk, and NVIDIA GTX-line GPUs.

In so many words, ALT Systems will take the disparate pieces of hardware and software from HP, NVIDIA, Autodesk and Epic Games to provide an all-in-one buying solution for game dev studios. As ALT Systems president Jon Guess laughingly explained, it provides clients "one neck to wring" should things go wrong, rather than dev studios having to suss out hardware issues on their own. The first fruits of the partnership arrive this year in game developer-centric versions of the aforementioned three workstation models. For a full rundown of the various workstation configurations that'll arrive this year, ALT Systems has a site set up just for you.

Gallery: HP Workstations (GDC 2013)

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, HP

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Unity to bring Qualcomm optimization to its game engine

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/unity-to-bring-qualcomm-optimization/

Unity already supports development for (nearly) all mobile platforms and now the game engine maker's working on an optimized version for those with Qualcomm processors -- ie, quite a chunk of them. On the heels of freshly announced competition, it announced that it's collaborating with the chip-maker to release a new version of its multi-platform engine "in the coming months" to speed up Unity-authored games for Android and Windows Phone 8 devices powered by most flavors of that CPU. So far there are over 1.5 million registered developers building games for around 770 products that pack the necessary Snapdragon / Adreno combo, according to Unity -- meaning there's a decent chance you'll soon see some extra oomph in one or another of the games you play, whether you're in Redmond or Mountain View's camps. Hit the PR after the jump for more.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablets, Mobile

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What's the Best iPhone Data Plan?

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5992452/whats-the-best-iphone-data-plan

T-Mobile has the iPhone now. It's only a hundred bucks! There's no contract! Unlimited everything! But before you get too excited about the prospect of jumping ship for forgotten carrier, let's take a look at how exactly that its iPhone 5 data plans compare to the other big dogs.

Following is a chart that compares individual device plans across on-contract iPhone carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, as well as unsubsidized vendors with national scope like Virgin Mobile and Walmart's Straight Talk Wireless. Everyone has their own needs, obviously, but the bottom line is that if you use a lot of data, you should definitely start looking beyond AT&T and Verizon .

Click to embiggen!

Over a reasonable two-year lifespan of the iPhone 5, you're looking to spend $2,120 with Sprint versus $2,260 on T-Mobile and $1,730 on Straight Talk. How that compares to AT&T and T-Mobile depends on how much data you use, but even if you stick with just 1GB/month you're looking at $2,240 on AT&T over two years and $2,360 on Verizon.

Other considerations obviously come into play; Verizon will have better reception than AT&T, AT&T will let you do simultaneous voice and data while Verizon won't, T-Mobile doesn't have a functional LTE network yet, Sprint is... Sprint. But in terms of pure value, T-Mo made a strong case for itself today.

Or, you know, just pick up a Virgin Mobile iPhone 4S and save yourself a grand.

Additional reporting by Robert Schoon. Data plan info provided by Apple. AT&T Mobile Share costs were used for more accurate comparison with Verizon's Share Everything plans.

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Google Image Search Has Never Looked So Good

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5992448/google-image-search-has-never-looked-so-good

Stop what you're doing right now and start scrolling through this Tumblr of colorful images of planes and bridges and mats and packaging and other everyday items morphing into each other. It's called I'm Google, an ongoing art project that finds beautiful patterns in otherwise benign and boring images Google Image search results.

Dina Kelberman, the artist behind the Tumblr, explains that it's an "ongoing stream of consciousness," where batches of images "move seamlessly from one subject to the next based on similarities in form, composition, color, and theme." Seriously, take a few minutes and watch the pictures just melt together. You won't be able to stop scrolling. [I'm Google via This Is Colossal]

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T-Mobile's HD Voice Hands On: A Sweeter-Sounding iPhone

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5992454/t+mobiles-hd-voice-hands-on-a-sweeter+sounding-iphone

T-Mobile just announced its very own iPhone 5 and no-contract plans. One of the little subplots was that this would be the first iPhone to support HD Voice. We just went ears-on with to see if it's a difference you can actually hear.

Calling from one T-Mobile iPhone to another, my caller's voice came through loud and clear. You know how sometimes cell-to-cell voice calls can sound a little fragmented? Like little bits of sounds are being dropped? This didn't have that. It was a much more natural sounded call. It was a bit richer, and definitely fuller. I wouldn't say it was like night and day, but it's definitely a noticeable improvement. I then used the same iPhone to call an HTC One on AT&T and it sounded, y'know, like a typical cell call. It was very slightly broken up, and definitely didn't have as much dynamic range.

It's important to note that this isn't brand new technology; T-Mobile's iPhone 5 HD Voice sounds just like Sprint's Evo 4G LTE HD Voice from last year. But it's definitely the clearest tone you'll find on any iPhone out there, for those rare moments you actually use your iPhone as a phone phone.

Obviously, a noisy environment isn't the ideal testing ground, but for a snap impression, HD Voice is definitely better. We look forward to spending more time with it in the future, though, so we can do a fuller evaluation. HD Voice is also (or will be) available on the Galaxy S III, the Galaxy S IV, and the HTC One to name a few.

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BlackBerry Z10 live on T-Mobile website: $100 down payment or $532 up front

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/blackberry-z10-live-t-mobile-website-100-on-contract-/

Just ahead of T-Mobile's event in New York City, we've noticed that the carrier has already listed the BlackBerry Z10 on its website. It looks like the smartphone will be available for a $100 down payment with a $18 monthly installment for 24 months, though the UnCarrier also lists the BB Z10 for $532 up front. Notably, the handset's page says it supports 4G LTE -- and we imagine we'll hear a good deal more about T-Mobile's network plans when the event kicks off in just a bit.

Update: The BB Z10's arrival on Big Magenta is official, with CEO John Legere announcing the previously mentioned smartphone pricing on stage.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, T-Mobile

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Source: T-Mobile

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T-Mobile LTE speed tests on Note II, HTC One and iPhone 5

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/t-mobile-lte-speed-tests/

Wondering whether T-Mobile's LTE network has the chops to live up to the "smokin'" adjectives we had thrown our way throughout the event? We certainly were, so we headed right to the suite of devices and got our hands-on all the phones we could. Speeds are quite good in general -- but interestingly things did start slowing down as more and more folks fired up Ookla's SpeedTest app, doing all they could to test T-Mo's nascent network. Join us after the break for our findings.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung, HTC, T-Mobile

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