USA Today mostly rehashes what we've heard about Google's plans, but they add a few unique contributions to the growing rumor pile. First, they peg Google's partners as "includ[ing] Sprint, Motorola, Samsung and Japanese wireless giant NTT DoCoMo"—WSJ is betting Sprint, T-Mobile, and HTC, with Samsung and other hardware companies as possibilities. (Reuters also says Samsung.) Also, while the Linux-based OS is nothing new, the tip that it'll be overlaid with Java is.
Monday, November 5, 2007
USA Today's Eleventh Hour Google Phone Facts/Speculation/Hype
The WSJ Ponders How Google Will Change Phones (Verdict: Feature Explosion)
The Wall Street Journal tweaks the hype for Google's supposedly hours-away mobile announcement with a boilerplate of speculation about how Google's open platform will bust open the wireless industry by igniting "a race among Silicon Valley developers, long shut out of the wireless industry, to come up with new applications for cellphones," like HDTV, multiplayer mobile games, actual multi-tasking, and other exciting, previously impossible coolness. Bonus rumormongering: Sprint and T-Mobile name-checked again as Google's probable partners
Friday, November 2, 2007
Nokia Delays N-Gage Game Portal as Warner Pulls from Its Music Store
Yes, the title could have been "Nokia's Crappy Friday": Reuters says the N-Gage gaming service and the new music store are "among the cornerstones" of Nokia's big mobile-content push, yet today neither one is where it's supposed to be.
The new N-Gage gaming service, unveiled in August and due to launch this month, will now go live in December.
"Software testing is taking a bit more time than what we had expected," [spokesperson] Kari Tuutti said. "We are talking about a couple of weeks."Of greater concern is the music store. Nokia stuck its toe in the OTA download water this week in the UK, but Warner Music Group—one Fourth of the Big Four—promptly pulled its content from the service. WMG had no objection to the site itself, but rather to MOSH, Nokia's legal P2P filesharing service.
Already, over 6 million people have used MOSH to exchange files. Nokia assures that copyrights are protected by Audible Magic, a scanning system that checks files as they pass through the service. Clearly, that's not enough reassurance for WMG.
And if I might add: What the hell are 6 million people exchanging if not some variety of copyrighted content? Original demo tapes and manuscripts? Seriously.source
gizmodo.com
Sony's Rumored $99 PS2 Makes Up for No PS3 Backwards Compatibility,
Despite the PS3 being the greatest home entertainment/gaming machine in history, people are reluctant to move on from their trusty, much-loved PS2s. You can't blame 'em, as good games are still coming out for it and it has perhaps the best back catalogue of any console ever. That's why it kind of makes sense that Sony may be planning to drop a new, power-brickless $99 PS2 model on us next year. This could, of course, be related to Sony's boneheaded decision to drop all backwards compatibility from the new 40GB PS3 model. You wouldn't do that just to try to move some cheap PS2s, would you Sony? I'd like to think that a move that low is below even you, but I wouldn't put it past you. [
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Polymer Logic Speakers Slathered with Diamonds and Gold
The exploitation of audiophiles who think they have golden ears continues with these Polymer Logic speakers from Polymer Audio Research. They're characterized by the company as
"clearly an astonishing value for $24,990/pr and contains more pure diamond and gold then you'll find in any $500,000 diamond engagement ring."Clearly, it's astonishing that anyone would fall for such a crock of bullshit. The midrange drivers are sprinkled with diamond fairy dust, and oh yeah, those golden ears will be matched up with the Polymer Logic's titanium dome tweeters, festooned with a pure layer of solid gold. Oh, wait a minute, those diamond drivers are made one at a time in a plasma reactor! We didn't know that—that's different. We're sold.
Junkies]
40GB PS3 Uses a Smaller Chipset
According to European site Computer Base and a little help from automated translation, Sony has already shrunk their Cell processor down to the 65nm scale for the new 40GB PS3s, along with the the supporting NVIDIA graphics chipset. While our first response would be that PS3 users can look forward to less overheating—especially since Sony was able to shrink their heat pipe in this new PS3—hot chips really haven't been a problem for Sony (unlike *cough*Microsoft*cough* other console manufacturers). But consumers will still benefit from less power consumption, as the current 200-watt setup has been reduced to consume just 135 watts.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Leopard Hacked For Self-Hating PC Users
We had written a very smug, Macs rule PCs drool post reporting that PC users could run Leopard. And then our Mac froze up and we lost it all. So now you just get the news straight, without our giggling. The news, once again: OSX Leopard has been hacked to work on all Intel PCs, and the process is ridiculously simple, requiring a small .zip and a touch of blank media.
source
gizmodo.com
$3.4 Million In-house Cinema Wins HE's Installation of the Year Award
A house in Austin, Texas has just been awarded with Home Entertainment's "Installation of the Year" accolade, and we have no reason to disagree with the judgment. Check out the tantalizing gallery below:
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Mach 8 Hydrogen Hypersonic Airliner
It looks like that Boeing jet we showed you yesterday isn't going to be the only airplane using hydrogen if the European Union has its way. The European Space Agency just got $14.5 million in a second round of funding from the EU to study the idea of developing A2, a hydrogen-fueled hypersonic aircraft that might travel at an incredible speed of Mach 5.5. They're studying what it would take to build an aircraft so fast that you could fly from Brussels to Sydney in 4.6 hours. Sheesh, that's 10,407 miles. There's even talk of an engine that could propel the craft to Mach 8. This rocket plane makes the Mach 2 of the Concorde seem glacially slow.
The researchers are proposing a big plane, too. Check out the A2's size next to the gigantic Airbus A380 in the graphic above. This A2 hyperliner is big enough for 300 passengers, and the engineers are hoping to make it cost-effective enough for tickets to ride on the huge plane to cost about the same as a normal business class seat does today.
ATM Card Comes With Its Own Keypad
For people whose paranoia leads them to believe that there are boogeymen actually living inside ATMs, this invention from Innovative Card Technologies and eMue Technologies lets them input their PIN—and presumably encrypt it—before they approach the machine. Cool as it is, I have a problem: I only remember my PINs from muscle memory, so this would need a standard telephone numberpad to work for me. How many problems can you spot with this admittedly slim piece of high technology
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
AT&T Lets You Talk, But Limits What You Say
AT&T has revised their Terms of Service in a manner that should horrify the consumer public. Usually such updates screw the customer subtly, but AT&T's new adjustment ironically pulls freedom of speech directly from those using AT&T's service to speak. In short, if you slam AT&T, they can pull your service:
AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes...(c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries.Of course, AT&T has overlooked one important fact about their TOS: they can't cancel a customer's service who will no longer do business with them anyway. Changes in TOS are often a loophole out of your contract. And if I were an AT&T customer, my choice would be pretty clear. UPDATE: Confirmed with AT&T— this is a new TOS merged in from the Yahoo! DSL TOS. Naughty, but AT&T also confirms that this is the way its always been
Monday, October 22, 2007
Ferrari Segway PT i2
The Segway PT i2 Ferrari Limited Edition comes just in time to celebrate Kimi Raikkonen's F1 championship. However, despite being painted in red, having a "Genuine Leather" handlebar and sporting the Cavallino Rampante shield, it doesn't run any faster than a regular Segway, neither does it attract sculptural blondes named Ingrid or Helga. In other words, a waste of $12,000. Maybe Ron Dennis' darling snotty-boy Lewis Hamilton should drive one next year
Friday, October 12, 2007
Asustek P5E3 Motherboard Features Embedded "Splashtop" Linux Variant
If you are not familar, Splashtop is a Linux variant that provides basic functionality like wired and wireless connectivity, Firefox, Skype, and simple games. What's unique about the software is it that runs entirely in RAM. That means you don't have to wait for your computer to boot in order to surf or chat on the internet. With the release of the P5E3, Asustek has become the first manufacturer to implement Splashtop in a motherboard.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Apple Applies for Patent for Pressure-Sensitive Touchscreens
Aiming to go beyond just sensing the location of your finger on its touchpads and touchscreens, Apple has applied for a patent for a "Force Imaging Input and Device System," which amounts to a spring-like device underneath the touchscreen or touchpad. The pressure-sensitive "force detector" layer would create a separate set of data, or image, that could add another dimension to interacting with Apple's phones, media players, laptops and displays. After the jump, see a full-sized diagram of the idea.
iPhone 1.1.1 File System Accessed, Hacks Not Quite There
Good news! The iPhone 1.1.1 file system has been broken open as a result of two iPhone hackers inserting symbolic links into the file system of a 1.0.2 iPhone before updating. And with file system access, it means we're one step closer to activating, then jailbreaking, and then enabling third-party applications. Erica at TUAW is liveblogging her progress, and we'll update this post with more info as it comes in. TUAW]
Update: The current status is file access, but no executable access and no shell access. This means that although you can look, you can't run apps. With a little file fiddling, that should come very soon.
Update 2: Any dreams of using the Wi-Fi music store on 1.0.2, effectively negating one big reason to upgrade, have been squashed. It doesn't work.
Update 3: Pash from Lifehacker tells us the whole third-party app scene has been totally quiet since the 1.1.1 launch. Both new apps and updates to old ones have been stagnant.
Update 4: They have read access to the entire disk, but write access is still limited.
sourcegizmodo.com
40GB PS3 Finally Made Official
Well, we've heard the rumors and the retail leaks, and now it's official: there's a 40GB Playstation 3 coming on October 10th. It's only official for Europe as of now, with a €399 pricetag, but it's pretty safe to assume we'll be getting the same thing soon enough. The catch? No memory card reader, only two USB ports, and no PS2 backward compatibility. Is this the pricepoint Sony needed to hit to finally make the PS3 affordable? Will you be making the plunge now despite the lack of backwards compatibility? Between this and some good games finally coming out, the PS3 might just start moving some units
source
gizmodo.com
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Hitachi New Style TV Is Only 0.75-inches.
THIS IS REALLY SLIIIIIIMMMMMMMM
Ceatec2007 New Style TV
This is the new Hitachi New Style TV, a 32" LCD television that is not only ultra-thin at 0.75-inch (1.9cm) thick, but looks absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, it's just a prototype of the final model, which will come in 2009. Sony better hurry up scaling up their new XEL-1. [Gizmodo Japan]
Ceatec2007 New Style TV
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Gigashot A100 Series is Small, Full HD Camcorder from Toshiba
toshiba4.jpgHere's a full-frontal of one of Toshiba's Gigashot A100 Full HD camcorders. The A100F has a 1.8-inch HDD with capacity of 100GB, while her younger sister, the A40F has, yep, 40GB on hers. But they both give you 1920 × 1080 resolution in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format. They're out in Japan mid-November, a month after the less sexy Gigashot K hits the shops. More pics and specs below.
toshiba_gigashot_a.jpg
toshiba6.jpg
10 x zoom lens
Real-V engine reduces picture noise.
Records in 1920×1080i and 1440×1080i resolution at 60fps in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format.
Recording modes of XQ, HQ, or SP
A100 has 12 hours' capacity of full HD video, 23 hours of standard
35 mm Fujinon lens with 45 mm diameter
3-inch LCD screen (320 x 240 res)
SDHC-compatible SD card slot
Audio recording at16bit/48kHz at 384 kbps bit rate
Measures 78.1 × 135.4 × 79.0 mm
A100F weighs 495 grams
A40F weights 485 grams
Battery life approx 75 mins
Lithium ion battery
Comes with AC adapter, remote control, USB cable, AV cable and D terminal cable
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Sony NWZ-A818BLK Video Walkman,8GB
Sony has boosted the memory size of its Video Walkman up to 8GB. Available in four colors—white, black, silver and metallic pink, the NWZ-A818 still isn't the most beautiful machine on the block. Specs, price and shipping date after the jump.
Operating System
Windows XP, SP2 or newer
Format
MP3, WMA, AAC-LC, Linear PCM10
Frequency Response
20 - 20,000Hz (when playing back data file, single signal measurement)
Equalizer
5 Band: Heavy/Pop/Jazz/Unique/Custom 1/Custom 2 & Clear Bass
Format-2
MPEG 4, M4V
Playback
Mode: Repeat(On/Off), Continuous Playback (On/Off)
JPEG Playback
Normal/Slide Show/Slide Show Repeat Slide Show Interval(Short/Normal/Long) Compatible with DCF 2.0/Exif 2.2 file format4
Headphone Jack
Stereo mini-jack
USB Port(s)
22 pin to high-speed USB 2.0 connector6
Battery Charging (Approx.)
USB based charging; 3 hours (full charge), 1.5 hours (approx. 80%)
Estimated Battery Life
Music: Approx. 33H7 Video: Approx. 8H8
Output Power
5+5mW
Backlit Color
2.0" QVGA TFT display (240 x 320)
Simulated Surround
VPT: Studio/Live/Club/Arena/Matrix/Karaoke
The Video Walkman comes with a USB Cable, MDR-EX082 Headphones and extension cord, CD-ROM with Windows Media Player 11 and MP3 Conversion Tools, Quick Start Guide and an Adaptor Plate (for optional 22 pin cradle). Price is $229.99 and it starts shipping tomorrow
LG-KS20 has Touchscreen
LG's new smartphone should be out in Europe by the end of the year, and we're expecting to get a look at it next week at IFA. Find out what else this touchscreen beauty has got, and see some pretty ladies handling it, all after the jump.
12.8 mm thich
2.8-inch touch screen display
Full browsing capability
HSDPA-supporting
3.6Mbps download speed
Push email service
2 megapixel camera
MP3 playback
Bluetooth 2.0
Cursive script recognition
Video call
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Sirius Sportster
With Sirius' new Sportster 5 their dockable line has finally gone color. Featuring both a color display and a customizable backlighting to match your dash, the new Sportster is sure to offer hours of heated discussions over the merits of various schools of color design. Other than that, upgrades seem scant. The unit will offer 16 more minutes of recording (now you can record up to an hour of Sirius broadcast) but otherwise the same FM transmission and other (Fill in Special Feature)™ stay intact. Look for the Sportster 5 debuting this fall at $169.99. Hit the jump for the feature list in full.
FEATURES:
* Large multi-color display: easy viewing and use
* Selectable colors: match your dash lights and mood
* SIRIUS Universal docking capability
* SIRIUS Replay™: pause, rewind and replay up to 60 minutes of live radio
* FM transmitter or stereo audio output to connect your vehicle's radio
* FM preset function: allows you to store the best FM frequencies in your area for optimum integration
* 30 presets: enjoy fast access to your favorite channels
* S-Seek™ Alert: so you won't miss your favorite artists, songs and sports
* One-Touch Jump™ button: direct access to local traffic and weather, or your favorite channel
* Personalized sports ticker: real-time updates of your favorite sports
* Rotary tuning knob: surf channels on the fly
* Sports Alert™: track your favorite sports team and race driver
* Parental controls: easily lock and unlock channels
* Alarm clock w/snooze: wake up to your favorite channel
* Complete vehicle kit includes radio, dock w/suction cup mount and vent mounts, remote control,
vehicle power adapter, magnetic mount satellite antenna and FM extender antenna
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Butterfly Knife-esque CD/MP3 Concept ( LOOKS COOOOOOOOOL)
MP3s may be the wave of the future, but that doesn't mean we've had the initiative to digitize our CD collection. This Dual Music Player concept is a both a portable MP3 player and a more portable CD player. Unfolding รก la butterfly knife, the DMP concept spins your CDs while exposed to the world, but we bet the effect would look pretty wicked (especially when operating the dual purpose, self defense saw function).
Monday, August 6, 2007
Logitech MX Air Mouse
GREAT LOOK>
The Logitech MX Air Rechargeable Cordless Mouse ships today, and we've been testing it, taking it into the home theater and onto the desktop. You can move it around in 3D space, gesturing your way to screen navigation. But it's frustrating at times, and it takes a while to get the hang of it. Be sure you can return it, because some people will intensely dislike this mouse. Jump for our assessment of its pluses and minuses.
Good: Coolest-looking mouse we've ever seen. Nice charging stand. 2.4GHz wireless transmits a lot farther than conventional wireless mice (or even through walls), about like Bluetooth. Nice dynamic scrolling feature, where it lets you sling a scroll into hyper-auto mode, which feels a bit like the iPhone's "kinetic scrolling." The trick to using its 3D capabilities: When you pick it up, don't hold it like a mouse, but like a remote control. And it works fairly well, letting you move around in space and mouse around the screen with relative ease. Cool "Freespace" motion sensing gestures in selected media apps: slight flick to the left or right for volume, circle in the air for next/previous track.
Bad: The 3D interface takes some getting used to, we're still trying to figure out the crucial question: Why? Works OK as a desktop mouse, but if you pick it up the slightest bit, it thinks you want 3D mode and doesn't work in flat mode for a few seconds. It would be nice to be able to turn off the 3D mode altogether. We also don't care for the lack of a physical scroll wheel. Instead it's got a touchpad-like area for scrolling that makes an annoying ticking sound that you can't turn off. Expensive at $149.99.
Summing up, $150 is a lot to plunk down for a mouse that's beautiful but feels just plain weird. It behaves oddly on the desktop, and any cheap Bluetooth mouse would be a whole lot easier to use in the home theater. Pass.
If you're still interested, Amazon's the only place it's available thus farO2 Cocoon Designer Cellphone
Swedish gadget blog Fosfor got their hands on the svelte O2 Cocoon phone, and were gracious enough to produce an unboxing gallery. Not only is the phone simple and elegant, but so is its packaging. We're big fans of this newcomer, from its clean lines to the incorporation of a hidden LED display. Hopefully this will spur some better design into the industry. [Fosfor]
o2 Cocoon Unboxed
gizmodo.com
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Super Tiny Micro SD Card Reader
The "Super Tiny Micro SD Card Reader" gets about as small as physically possible to read Micro SD and and T-Flash media, while still connecting to a normal USB 2.0 port. At a mere 25.5 x 12 x 4.5 mm, the reader is dwarfed by keys—I mean, just look at that picture—unless Brando is using the old "big key trick" again.
At $11 ($3 cheaper than this older model), the Super Tiny Micro SD Card Reader is a steal, considering it will both read you mini memory and double as a thumb drive. And for when the cops finally bust you for all those illegal MP3s/child porn, the small drive will be a blessing as it easily slides up your body's own hidden compartment.source
gizmodo.com
Zero X Electric Motorcycle is Fast, Eco-Friendly, USB Compatible
What have your lithium-ion batteries done for you lately? Forget powering those handheld gadgets, the king of lithium-ion batteries is sitting in the heart of the Zero X electric motorcycle. Named for its lack of emissions and noise, the 120-pound Zero X still pumps out 20 horsepower and tops out at around 50 miles per hour. A single charge of the battery will take you 40 miles, but the battery packs can be hotswapped in mere seconds and fully recharge in about three hours. Though the engine is roughly equivalent to that of a 250cc gasoline-powered bike, the lightweight electric motor makes the Zero X accelerate much faster. If it's too fast for you, plug the bike's brain into your PC via the USB port to access the bike's virtual control panel.
The ZBrain computer opens up a host of customizatin options for the electric bike, including the ability to create multiple riding profiles for different users. You can blaze to work at full throttle all week, then tone down the acceleration and top speed and make the younglings run errands for you on the weekend. While the bike is suitable for on- or off-road adventures, it isn't street legal just yet. Zero Motorcycles is hoping to put a modified commuter version with lights and blinkers on the market in a few months. You can pick one up by joining Zero's fan club for a $2,000 fee, which is then credited against the purchase price of $6,900 when you place your order.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Intel Launches Cheaper Intel Quad-core
In addition to their mobile Extreme CPU, Intel has also announced its 3.0GHz Core 2 Extreme processor, the 65-nm QX6850 with four cores and dual 4MB Level 2 cache. The QX6850, touted as the fastest consumer processor now available, is the flagship of their new 1,333MHz Front Side Bus CPU family, which includes the Core 2 Duo E6850, E6750 and E6550, all of them with cheaper prices than the previous generation.
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850
3.00GHz 1333 4MBx2 $999
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850
3.00GHz 1333 4MB $266
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
2.66GHz 1333 4MB $183
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550
2.33GHz 1333 4MB $163
Canon HG10 is World's Smallest Hard Disk-Based HD Camcorder
Canon jumped into the hard disk camcorder market today with its HG10, the company's first high-definition hard drive camcorder and the world's smallest, weighing 19.92 ounces with the battery inside. That 40GB hard disk gives you 5.5 hours of AVCHD recording at its highest quality setting, compressing the video at 15Mbps. If our sneak preview of this camcorder is any indication, that's going to result in some sweet-looking high definition footage. Here are our impressions.
While this HG10 shares a lot of specs with the Canon HR10, its DVD-recording HD camcorder brother, this new shooter feels extremely compact in the hand, and while it is indeed the world's smallest hard disk HD camcorder, it's not too small, still giving you easy access to its controls. We especially like the scroll wheel on the widescreen viewfinder instead of that touchscreen on models from Panasonic and others, which in the real world tend to end up such a smudged-up mess it's hard to even see your video underneath all those fingerprints.
A slight disappointment is the life of the standard battery included with the camcorder, which Canon says will give you an hour of shooting, and that's without the LCD viewscreen on. If you want longer battery life, you'll have to spring for the extended battery, which lasts a quoted 2 hours and 15 minutes.
We especially like the way Canon applies its AVCHD codec, different from the way this compression is being used by Sony and Panasonic. Canon's compression scheme is able to lightly compress some scenes, while more heavily compressing others. For example, a simple clear blue sky can stand a lot more compression than a complicated crowd scene or a bunch of flowers.
How does the resulting footage look? Canon was unable to show us any video coming out of this camcorder at our preview session in New York, but we did see some of the HR10's 12Mbps footage which looked excellent with very few compression artifacts. The good news is that this HG10 compresses its footage even less, at a rate of 15Mbps, so it'll probably look even better. Even at that 12Mbps compression rate we saw, it looked every bit as good as HDV footage, which compresses at 25Mbps. It was some crispy-clean HD video, remarkably sharp with excellent color saturation and accuracy. Big thumbs-up.
This HG10 is recording in 1080i HD, at 1440x1080 at all compression settings. As is the case with most 1080i camcorders, only 1440 pixels per scanline are written to disk to save space, anamorphically squeezed from this HG10's 1920x1080 sensors to 1440x1080 on disk, and then stretched back out for the full 1920x1080i when it's played back.
Canon also uses "super range optical image stabilization," which uses a gyro sensor that detects motion, and sends a signal to a processor that tells a lens-shifting element to move. Then a processor analyzes the image, and if it determines the framing could be even more stable, it sends a signal back to the lens to tweak it further. It's an optical system, but it has a unique ability to feed back even more information in a second pass of stabilization. The result is good stabilization of high-frequency shaking as other systems can do, but also stabilization of subtle hand movements.
Overall, this looks like a great new camcorder from Canon. Its AVCHD format is finally becoming more widely accepted, too, with Apple's Final Cut Pro editing software now compatible with the format, along with the excellent Windows video editing application Sony Vegas Pro 7e. Unfortunately, Adobe hasn't jumped on the AVCHD bandwagon yet, but Adobe officials told us they were feverishly working on it. Adobe is planning to include AVCHD support with future updates of Premiere Pro CS3, which we hope will trickle down to Premiere Elements. But you can still edit this camcorder's footage without buying any more software, at least on the PC—Canon said a version of the Windows-only Corel (formerly Ulead) VideoStudio 11 will be included with this HG10 camcorder.
Canon says the HG10 will be priced at $1299, and will ship in early October in the United States.
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