Cell Phones1

Modmen adds flash memory to the DMB tuner

Mon, 3 Jul 2006 01:05 e

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Storage

USB DMB adapters are a dime a dozen these days (well, overseas at least), but how many of them can store their own drivers and a few videos to boot? A new model from Modmen can, as it packs in either 512MB or 1GB of storage space along with the digital TV tuner -- perfect for turning any Windows machine into a de facto entertainment center. Koreans can supposedly pick these up right away, though we have no idea what they'll be paying.

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Transcend releases T.sonic 530 flash-based DAP

Mon, 3 Jul 2006 00:35 e

Filed under: Portable Audio

DAP manufacturer Transcend has been know to offer some rather unconventional designs over the years -- see the T.sonic 310 and 620 for reference -- but we'd sure like to know what went on in the focus group that convinced the company to craft their newest player like a sparsely-decorated mint tin. Besides its unusual appearance, though, the T.sonic 530 is almost exactly the same model as the much more traditional-looking 520 we saw earlier this year, sporting 512MB or 1GB of flash memory, tiny OLED display, FM tuner, digital voice recorder, and of course, the on-screen lyrics option that promises to "bring out the pop star in everyone." The 530 is on the market now -- willing and able to assist you in the occasional karoake session -- and although exact pricing isn't known, you'll probably be able to pick up either capacity for under a hundred bucks.

[Via MobileWhack]

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Snappy's HAVA Video Streamer

Mon, 3 Jul 2006 00:10 e

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs

It might not be quite as edgy as the Slingbox in the design department, and the software support seems a bit lacking as far as client viewers, but the HAVA from Snappy Multimedia has a couple of welcome additions to the Slingbox repertoire. First off, the box includes built-in 802.11b/g WiFi, so adding it to your network shouldn't as much of a hassle. Second, the HAVA includes its own TV tuner, so you can have dual TV inputs if you'd like, or even use it as the primary (and wireless) tuner for your Windows Media Center box. Of course, all the usual location shifting capabilities are there, with up to 30fps DVD quality video available to multiple users over your home network, while lower bit-rate video can simultaneously be encoded for viewing over the Internets. Currently the HAVA is going for $200 after a pair of rebates, so if you're not bent on handheld or Mac support, and your inner fashionista is willing to take a hike, this little unit doesn't seem like a bad option for the remote viewing lifestyle.

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RCA's H116 6GB DAP reviewed

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 23:39 e

Filed under: Portable Audio

Considering that exactly zero people were interested enough in the new hard drive-based RCA MP3 players we brought you last week to actually leave a comment, we doubt that even a glowing review from Cnet would convince you to pick up one of these models -- but that's a moot point, because Cnet really doesn't have many positive things to say about the 6GB H116 they put through its paces. As you'll recall, RCA is clearly targeting the low-end of the market with its new DAPs, as evidenced by their black-and-white screens, rather generic-looking designs, and most tellingly, their complete lack of extra features that might sway folks away from the iTatorship. In fact, the only real compliment Cnet is able to muster about their unit is the fact that it does what it advertises: play music -- but not very well it seems. Combined with the buggy controls and poor quality of the FM transmitter, the sub-par audio would seem to indicate that even for the low-low price of $170, you're still not getting what you pay for.

[Thanks, Jen B.]

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Wii set to drop on November 6th?

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 23:15 e

Filed under: Gaming

You may remember us passing along a rumor last month from Cubed3 which claimed that Nintendo would be launching the Wii on November 6th; as usual, we took the info with no small amount of skepticism, but now that date actually seems to have been confirmed, and in the most unlikely of places: this month's issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids (Disclaimer: Engadget and SI for Kids are part of the same loving corporate family). Generally not known for getting the inside scoop on the video game industry, the magazine nonetheless seems confident enough in its sources to have published the supposed release date as fact without even the hint of a disclaimer, which combined with the Cubed3 info, makes us think that they might be onto something here. Obviously any deets related to the launch and pricing of this console are up in the air until the official word comes down from Japan, but with Xbox 360 already firmly entrenched and the PS3 scheduled to roll out a little later in the month, it certainly makes sense that Nintendo would be looking to leverage even the tiniest advantage.

[Via Joystiq]

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Audex's Bluetooth Headset for landlines

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 22:52 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

It's okay, we didn't know people were still using landlines either. For the last few holdouts, though, Audex (not to be confused with the Burton jacket of the same name) presents its Desk-Free Bluetooth Headset for telephones, which attaches to your fixed line phone and gives you that same great 10-feet of wireless freedom that you've come to love from your current cellphone-headset combo. We've no idea where you can pick one of these up nor how much it'll set you back, but if you're really in need of such a product, we're confident that you'll do what it takes to track one down.

[Via Slashphone]

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MET's BauXar Marty101 custom designed speakers

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 22:32 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Japan's MET Corp. bring us these new BauXar 6-Watt cylindrical speakers "for the life with nudie sound," whatever the hell that might mean. Ok, ok, the speakers themselves aren't new, we're just getting a few new colors and a custom-fit, MartyWear service which gives you the privilege (for an extra ¥20k Yen or about $170) of dressing up their ¥30k/$260 Marty101 speakers in a custom kit of your liking. And if we're reading the machine translation correctly, the custom designs they offer aren't limited to a catalog. Oh no, MET designers will slap whatever image your freakish interests might crave onto that 12-inches of cylinder -- just send in a drawing or photograph and they'll take care of the rest. As to the 360-degree nudie sound these speakers tout? Well all we can tell you is that as usual, a pair is required.

[Via Impress]

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USB mini paper shredder

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 22:02 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

So you're the type who must be ready to purge all trace of your existence at a moment's notice, eh? Then check it secret agent man, 'cause USB Geek, as only they can, are offering the USB mini Paper Shredder and, uh, letter opener for those of you given a number without a name. Capable of throating 4.8-inch wide paper and shredding it to 0.13-inch bits, this pup can be powered off USB or even 4 x AA batteries when you need a bit more disposal oomph. Get your $32 pre-order in now 'cause odds are, you won't live to see tomorrow.

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Kodak's EasyShare V610 10x ultra-zoom reviewed

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 21:32 e

Filed under: Digital Cameras

The EasyShare V610 is Kodak's ultra-zoom followup to their world's first, dual-lens digital cam, the V570. Unfortunately, just like its wide-angle bro, the V610 is getting a mixed reaction from reviewers. DCRP got their hands on the V610 and were certainly pleased by the slim design, MPEG-4 movie recordings, new Perfect Touch feature to brighten and generally improve shots at the touch of a button, decent performance, and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless transfer capabilities. However, the cam had "more than its share of annoyances" with "so-so" picture quality including above-average noise, a "miserable" 135 shot capable battery, and a poorly designed four-way navigation control around back. But this cam's all about that fat, 10x zoom right? Well, those two lenses result in a slow, non-continuous zoom with a 16-millimeter "jump" in focal length when switching between lenses -- this was especially "jarring" when zooming in movie mode. And the lack of image stabilization in this expensive cam makes it "awfully hard" to produce a sharp photo on a camera billed as an ultra-zoom model. Bottom line: forget the V610 and pick up the 10x Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1 for $100 less.

[Via Digital Photography Blog]

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Cowon's iAudio U2 2GB now in white

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 21:02 e

Filed under: Portable Audio

Cowon of Japan wish to remind you that they're still shipping the iAudio U2 player. How? By bucking the trend of dropping a limited edition pink model and throwing us the 2GB pearl-white iAUDIO U2-2G-WH instead. Everything else on this popular player, which many of you dubbed the best flash player on the market, remains unchanged: MP3/WMA/WAV and OGG support,128x64 LCD, line-input sound and voice recording to MP3s, FM tuner, and 20 hour battery with fast recharge. So get ready to enjoy that, uh "color sound" starting July 7 when these hit Japan for ¥18,980 or about $163 in greenback.

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LG's 19-inch, 2ms Flatron L1970HR reviewed

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 18:14 e

Filed under: Displays, Gaming

So PCMag decided to run LG's 19-inch Flatron L1970HR LCD through their suite of tests to see if its 2-millisecond response time really performs as advertised, and the good news for gamers is that this display indeed delivers excellent motion performance with little ghosting and few artifacts. You're also getting good color reproduction and a contrast ratio of 1600:1 that sounds great on paper, but in reality you can expect some loss of shadow detail and noticeable compression at both ends of the greyscale. Another trade-off for that zippy response time is resolution, as the 1,280 x 1,024 pixel array may not be enough for hardcore gamers or folks working on documents and photos all day, with the biggest knock being the monitor's inability to render smaller-sized fonts. In the end, unless all that you're doing is watching movies and playing video games all day (in which case we'd like to hear more about your job), it sounds like super-smooth video may not be worth the sacrifices you're making in other departments.

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WiBro a go in South Korea

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 16:26 e

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Laptops, Wireless, Networking

Seemingly always at the forefront of the latest and greatest technologies, little South Korea has once again trumped almost the entire rest of the world by rolling out commercial versions of the long-range wireless networking standard known as WiBro. Based on Intel's version of WiMax, the services offered by both SK Telecom and KT Corp will provide broadband speeds to users in and around Seoul from base stations with one kilometer ranges, allowing subscribers to maintain their connections even while traveling at speeds up to 74MPH. Although a slew of WiBro-enabled devices are on the verge of release, currently that Samsung PCMCIA card we saw last month is one of the few ways to go for getting your mobile WiBro on. Initially SK will be charging around $31.50 per month for its service, while KT's is significantly cheaper at less than $17, although both carriers are planning on introducing tiered pricing based on usage, as well as subsidies up to $105 on compatible gear.

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Shape-shifting paper could help tiny bots take flight

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 09:57 e

Filed under: Robots

A new breakthrough in materials science may pave the way for those inevitable swarms of tiny flying robots that will one day darken the skies and strike fear into us all, as researchers in South Korea have succeeded in coaxing specially-prepared cellophane paper to rapidly curve and straighten itself in an insect-like flapping motion. Although scientists have apparently known since the 1950's that wood was piezoelectric, meaning that it bends slightly when exposed to electricity, it took a team from Inha University with help from Texas A&M to discover that the same property also holds true for other cellulose-based material. By coating both sides of a sheet of cellophane with thin layers of gold, the researchers were able to create so-called Electroactive paper (EAPap) so sensitive that the voltage from a microwave beam provides enough power to trigger its unique shape-changing abilities. Oddly enough, no one is quite sure of the physics behind the transformation -- theories center around pressure changes resulting from the movement of ions -- but regardless of how it works, we're sure that more than a few governments will be most interested in deploying this technology to beef up their domestic and international surveillance programs.

[Via Roland Piquepaille and ScienceNOW]

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TDK reveals 6x BD-R disc

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 07:43 e

Filed under: HDTV, Storage

Even though the fastest Blu-ray burner you can buy today maxes out at just a 2x write speed, media manufacturer TDK is already looking towards a wonderful future filled with 4x and faster drives writing 200+GB of data to 8-layer discs. Now that they're gotten the capacity part down, the company is hard at work on discs that won't take five hours to burn, and the first fruit of this labor -- a 25GB platter rated at 6x -- was recently unveiled at Japan's Eighth Data Storage Expo -- although don't expect it to hit stores until next year. They were also showing off that 100GB quad-layer BD-R we heard about awhile back but never got the chance to peep, so make sure to follow the Read link to check out that plus many more exciting shots from what we hear was a pretty happening storage conference.

[Via HDBeat]

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The week in Engadget: June 25 - July 1

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 06:26 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Announcements

Features

News

Rumors

The week in Engadget Mobile

Features

News

Rumors

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PSP firmware versions 2.5 and 2.6 now downgradeable

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 05:35 e

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

So if you made the "mistake" of upgrading your PSP to firmware version 2.5 or 2.6 just to find out that your precious homebrew would no longer load, it seems you now have a questionably-legal way to downgrade back to version 1.5 and all the emulation fun that goes along with it. Several forums dedicated to Sony's portable console are reporting that hackers using the handles Dark_Alex and Hitchhikr have succeeded in creating a workaround that exploits files from the 1.5 updater to overwrite the current firmware, although owners of so-called "TA-082" PSPs are warned not to attempt the procedure unless they fancy a bricked device. Furthermore, since you're required to either download the necessary 1.5 swag or get it from a friend, you're probably breaking some anti-piracy laws here, so of course we can't put our stamp of approval on this hack. That's all for now, but the battle between Sony and the homebrew community is far from over, so keep your eyes peeled for the next installment in this exciting saga.

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All-electric Microcar Zenn poised for US release

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 03:22 e

Filed under: Transportation

If you're the type that enjoys taking short road trips at low speeds, then a new "car" hitting the States this month may be just what you've been looking for: by the end of July, Toronto's Feel Good Cars Inc. is set to ship one of the country's first fully-enclosed, all-electric vehicles to 20 dealers nationwide, with 25 more expected to sign up by the end of the year. The Microcar Zenn (which stands for zero emissions, no noise) is an electric version of the diesel-powered MC-2 sold in Europe; Feel Good imports the cars without a drivetrain, slaps in a five-horsepower engine at its Canadian factory, and plans to unleash a small fleet of 2,000 vehicles in the next year at $10,000-a-pop. Equally at home in the inner city or a gated community, the Zenn features many of the same amenities you'd find on a regular car -- seat belts, headlights, defroster, and a gauge cluster (no nav system, though) -- in a 1,200-pound package that's just 120-inches long. While vehicles such as the Chrysler GEM have shown us that there is indeed a market for these glorified golf carts, folks who enjoy hitting the highway and feeling the wind in their hair will surely steer clear of the Zenn, as its top speed of 25MPH and maximum range of 35 miles mean that you couldn't possibly merge into 60+MPH traffic -- that is, if the battery even lasted long enough for you to make it to the on-ramp in the first place.

[Via Autoblog Green]

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Jabra announces iPod Bluetooth adapter

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 01:22 e

Filed under: Portable Audio, Wireless

Since Apple's still showing no sign of caving into consumer demand and releasing a Bluetooth-equipped iPod (even a proprietary solution would be a good start -- anything to get rid of that annoying white cord), more and more manufacturers are looking to fill the void with their own workarounds, and now headset giant Jabra has announced plans to throw its own hat into the ring as well. Jabra's "hat" will come in the form of a dock connector-compatible adapter called the A125s, which will work with both the video and nano versions of the iPod, and promises 10 hours of playback or 250 hours of standby time before recharging becomes an issue. Unfortunately for exercise enthusiasts, these won't work at the same time as your Nike+iPod kit, so runners won't be able to cut the cord unless Nike releases its own pair of headphones. You can expect this adapter -- which will join the likes of the D.Muse, icombi, and naviPlay -- to retail for around $75 once it hits stores sometime this August.

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VW's Golf GTi "53 plus 1" is fully autonomous

Sat, 1 Jul 2006 23:18 e

Filed under: Robots, Transportation

You might think Volkswagen, of all car companies, would argue the best part about driving is the bit where you're driving (i.e. "farfegnugen"), and that drivers are, you know, wanted. Not so any longer, friends; looks like the higher ups got the Stanley bug and pimped their ride -- though not in any normal sense of the vernacular. They've begun showing off a new cloak and dagger prototype vehicle dubbed the VW Golf GTi "53 plus 1" (you're allowed not to catch the Herbie reference), which apparently uses a rig of laser sensors, GPS, and a radar net to drive itself at speeds of up to 150mph. We'll give you a moment to let that sink in. Now, why they had all this technology under wraps while Stanford was busting ass overhauling one of VW's own Touaregs for the DARPA Grand Challenge is beyond us, but unlike those "driving pleasure" types, you can give us a safe (clean burning) robo-car any day of the week. Except Sunday, that's drivin' day.

[Via GoRobotics]

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C1's not-a-UMPC UMPC

Sat, 1 Jul 2006 20:36 e

Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

When's a UMPC not a UMPC? When it's a Micro PC, like the Vaio UX. But when's a UMPC a UMPC... that's not a UMPC? Well, C1 claims to be one, but from what we understand it's not running Tablet with Touch Pack -- just XP -- so while you're getting a very small 2.6 pound 1.6-inch thick device with a 1GHz Via Eden, 80GB drive, 1GB DDR RAM, 8.4-inch SVGA display, PC slot, 3-hour battery, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g, and Ethernet, what you're not getting is an ultramobile PC / Origami / whatever you want to call it. But if those otherwise decent specs weren't enough to convince you of this $1,900 US device's merit outside the UMPC space, peep all those feature logos. Audio recording, MP3 playback, and freakin' 360° rotation, dude! This thing is so obviously an EUMPC; hells yes that E is for "extreme."

[Via TabletPCBuzz and JKOTR]

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Korea to test 1,000 remote-controlled domestic robots

Sat, 1 Jul 2006 15:58 e

Filed under: Household, Robots

Some of you laughed at South Korea's bellicose and seemingly unrealistic plans for 100% robot market penetration by 2020, but we wouldn't rule 'em out. Especially not since the Ministry of Information and Communication, which originally made said claim, will begin placing 1,000 wheeled, cell-phone controlled automatons -- dubbed URCs, or ubiquitous robotic companions -- into households and kindergartens this fall as a trial run for new robot technologies. The URCs will do the usual handling of domestic tasks as we might expect (and some we might not have seen coming, like cleaning rooms and reading books to children), as well the usual hanging out, taking care of pets (the real kind), and perform a little light sentry duty. The only thing at all disconcerting about any of this is the fact that unlike normal household droids, these URCs will be operated wirelessly from a central computing center ala I, Robot. Even though central robot behavior processing is what will supposedly get get the cost down to between $1,000 and $2,000 for one of these units, you'll never know exactly what your URC phoning home to the Ministry of Information and Communication about.

[Via GoRobotics]

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NEC's LCD2070WNX 20-inch widescreen

Sat, 1 Jul 2006 12:51 e

Filed under: Displays

Ah yes, yet another 20-inch widescreen display. Didn't NEC tell the peeps behind their new LCD2070WNX that 22-inch is totally what's in this season? Well, if you're not ready to graduate to the 24-incher (you know which one we're talking about), and don't mind a bit of corporate eye-soreness, NEC's latest Multisync features a USB 2.0 hub, height adjustment (unlike the LCD20WGX), NaViSet software controls, the usual 1680 x 1050 resolution, and Ambix, their oblique and unnecessary term for DVI, VGA, and composite inputs. You can expect to pick one up for $450 or less, which is -- like everything else about this monitor -- about on par.

[Via TG Daily]

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4G development group comes together

Sat, 1 Jul 2006 10:53 e

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

While much of the world awaits 3G to grace their airwaves, a coalition of companies in the wireless industry are putting together a nonprofit organization in the UK this month to promote the development of 4G. The "Next Generation Mobile Networks" group, consisting of founding members KPN Mobile, Orange, Sprint Nextel, Vodafone, and T-Mobile plus add-ons China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo, is looking to 2010 for the commercial deployment of 4G devices -- that's less than four years away, folks. We're somewhat skeptical 4G is going to come together for any substantial population in that amount of time, but just in case, we're going start compiling our list of things to do with 2.5Gbps of WWAN bandwidth now.

[Via EE Times]

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Robot Museum opening in October

Sat, 1 Jul 2006 10:01 e

Filed under: Robots

Ok, so while it's not quite as flashy as the Robot Hall of Fame, Nagoya's about to get its automaton on in October when they'll be opening the Robot Museum. We recommend patronizing this landmark if for no other reason than making sure your identity appears in the museum's records of attendance -- anything to score a few points with the bots should they, you know, run amok and use the Robot Museum as the capital for the new world order. You know what? Forget it, we don't need some joke about robots taking over the world to justify attending this museum. You should go because pretty much anything they could put in there -- from Daleks to Totoya assembly arms -- is gonna be freaking phenominal. Did we mention how much we love robots?

[Via Pink Tentacle]

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Engadget Spanish turns 1!

Sat, 1 Jul 2006 05:44 e

Filed under: Announcements

Wow, time really flies. Just a little over a year ago we had a bun in the oven called Engadget Spanish, and now it's all grown up and celebrating its first birthday. Next thing you know it's gonna be thiiis big and off to college, married, and with little Engadget spinoffs blogs of its own, and we'll just br here still blogging in English with our empty nest syndrome, hopefully collecting blogger social security. Oh, by the way, we hear they're giving something away -- but we won't spoil the surprise. Feliz cumpleaños Engadget Español!

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Leopard rumor roundup

Sat, 1 Jul 2006 05:19 e

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

The Apple rumor mill has been circulating furiously lately with "leaks," speculation, and all manner unofficious information -- some wack and out of touch with reality, some quickly proved fake, some fun, and some even a little plausible. Unless someone gets all crazy on us and leaks Leopard long before it's due to debut at WWDC in August, all we've got now is a few of these rumors to go by. Oh, and feel free to leave some more of your favorite Leopard rumors in comments!

Apple will take aim at Parallels and introduce an integrated virtualization system. Seems plausible, but being that Parallels is already out, that might induce some serious anti-trust issues.
iChat will do VoIP and will be able to call landlines, ala Vonage, etc. Makes sense, though we'd be a little skeptical about how they'd integrate ~~Skype~~MacOut minutes into .Mac -- they'd have to come up with a new micropayment system for landline calling.
Apple will develop a desktop mapping application; it will be similar in form and function to Google maps. Except unlike Google maps, an Apple map app would have little point.
Finder to go solid metal, get tabbed interface. (Video here.)
Apple will take a Wine-like approach, and run Windows apps natively. Some people just won't give this one up -- the reason they entered the BAPco was because of Boot Camp, m'kay?
That silly iTunes BitTorrent deal: share your bandwidth with Apple so users downloading legitimate content from the iTMS get faster speeds. Your reward? Get some cash knocked off your iTMS purchases. Sounds wonderful, but it's a legal nightmare. You're going to provide value for an unaffiliated entity using your bandwidth? ISPs ain't gonna like that. And do you really think Apple's gonna convince the RIAA to take a cut in profit from iTunes for reduced prices on P2P sharing? Because Apple sure ain't gonna shave some more off that razor-thin margin of theirs, and Steve's already having a hard enough time keeping the cost at 99c per song.

[Thanks to everyone who sent their Apple rumors in]

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Engadget around the World

Sat, 1 Jul 2006 01:25 e

We know you've been watching closely all week, but there's more going on out there in the world of Engadget than just what we're writing about here in the States. Check it out, this is Engadget around the world.

Engadget Japanese

Engadget Spanish

Engadget Chinese

My city my Engadget digi life [Poland & Hong Kong]
Nokia vs. Telsda
3D bumptop desktop system

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Samsung's Yepp YP-T9 with Bluetooth hits FCC

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 22:02 e

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video, Wireless

Looks like Samsung has a new one in the works; their YP-T9 DAP just got its FCC approval and it's looking mighty nice. The Yepp player measures 0.43-inches thick, and weighs a mere 1.7 ounces, but Samsung still managed a few extras. Most notable is the Bluetooth support for using wireless headphones, but there's plenty of other stuff like FM radio, voice recording, MP3/WMA/OGG support, photo and text viewing, and two full color 3D games. You can also play back 15fps videos at a 208 x 176 resolution, be we think we'll pass, thanks. Samsung claims 30 hours of music playback and 7 hours for video, but of course we have no idea as to when Samsung is planning on releasing this thing. Keep reading for more FCC glamour shots.

[Thanks, Tuolumne]

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Seagate's leaking hard drives for 10x the fun

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 18:05 e

Filed under: Storage

The wild and wacky frontier of hard drive technology is always full of surprising new ways to keep those drive capacities growing, and this new patent for leaking nanotube-housed lubricant onto disc platters is no exception. Apparently, a heated hard disc is capable of cramming more data into closer quarters, but the method hasn't been implemented in current drives since the heat evaporates the lubricant that allows the recording head to travel smoothly over the disc, causing a fatal disc crash. Seagate's new patent addresses the issue by storing lubricant in a special material made from millions of carbon nanotubes and embedded in the drive housing. As the disc spins, lubricant is slowly leaked out, and the disc can be kept safe for its whole lifetime. The upshot of all this is that Seagate can use the heat-assisted recording to cram several terabits per square inch into a drive -- 10 times as much data into the disc than is currently possible. We guess there'll be a bit of a wait for this to make it to market, but we greatly look forward to an educational video on the subject all the same.

[Via New Scientist]

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HTC Trinity revealed?

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:46 e

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

We've just spotted what purports to be the HTC Trinity, and while it's looking quite a bit different (and a bit less sleek) than the last time it surfaced, the specs are just as spiffing. The Windows Mobile 5.0 actually doesn't look too much different than HTC's Hermes, with the main addition of GPS and some reworked face buttons. There's 64MB of RAM, 128MB of ROM, a 2.8-inch QVGA display, Bluetooth, WiFi, EDGE, HSDPA and a microSD slot. Just like the Hermes there are VGA and 2.0 megapixel cameras, and the phone is similarly slim at 0.7-inches thick. No more info as to when this will be out, and we can't say we aren't disappointed about the fairly generic look, but there's always a chance (hope) this report is a bit off.

[Thanks, Sean]

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France legislature passes "iTunes law"

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 12:02 e

Filed under: Portable Audio

After all sorts of protesting, name calling and backtracking, the French legislature has finally managed to pass their DRM law that could spell a bit of trouble for iTunes and other companies bent on locking down their own respective file formats. The language has been toned down a bit from the original draft, and we don't have a new response from Apple or a hint of how this final version might be implemented, but the basic requirement of the bill is that Online music stores provide a method for users to play downloaded files on any device, as long as device manufacturers ask nicely. More recent revisions allowed some exceptions to this rule, including if the copyright holders weren't willing to have the DRM opened up, but from the sounds of it there are industry types on both sides of the argument. Some are jumping at the chance to price DRMed songs independently of Apple, yet still land them on the iPod. Apparently there are still a couple weeks for the law to be challenged and struck, but once it goes in action we'll be quite interested to see how Apple and others react -- a France sans iTunes?

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Sony wouldn't trademark "PooS," would they?

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 10:18 e

Filed under: Gaming

We love Sony, so naturally we tend to give 'em a hard time. It's nothing personal, that's just the pecking order; we just hold them in such high regard that when the slip up, say something stupid, or just do that thing they always seem to do to piss off their customers, we're there to give 'em a slap on the wrist -- just like we would other company. This time we're going to have to give them the benefit of the doubt -- we want to give them the benefit of the doubt, because we really don't want to believe Sony would drop the infinity sign (which closely resembles an inverted 8) between the P and S (we presume for PlayStation) in a supposed trademark application they filed for their PlayStation controller with the Japanese patent office. We can't prove this is actually legit, but that's the word on the street according to GameFront.de, whose PooS logo image (above) doesn't even look close to the regular PlayStation / Spiderman type we know they've become so anal about using everywhere. Our advice: don't believe the infinite amounts of hype, until further notice we're calling BooS on this one.

[Via Digital Battle]

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Apple: "iPod City" investigation still underway

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:07 e

Filed under: Portable Audio

Despite recent comments by a Foxconn spokesperson that Apple had already investigated and found no problems with the Chinese factory that has come to be known as "iPod City," BusinessWeek is reporting that the probe is still in fact underway, with an Apple representative reiterating that the company takes "allegations of noncompliance very seriously." According to spokesperson Steve Dowling, Apple is in the midst of a "thorough audit" of the Hon Hai-owned plant, which had recently admitted to breaking labor laws concerning overtime, but which continues to deny other allegations contained in the original Daily Mail exposé. Specifically, Dowling says that the auditors are looking into "employee working and living conditions," conducting interviews with workers and their managers (separately, we hope), and generally making sure that the factory lives up to a supplier code of conduct that supposedly "sets the bar higher than accepted industry standards." This is all very good news indeed, but now Apple faces yet another hurdle in the form of a jaded public highly skeptical of corporate-speak, meaning that whether the investigation turns up violations or not, the company may still have a hard time convincing folks to accept the auditors' final verdict.

[Via AppleInsider, image courtesy of Mail on Sunday]

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Researchers developing odor recorder

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 05:37 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It looks like Japan is leading the way on yet other technology front, first introducing Smell-O-Vision to movie theaters, and now developing an odor recorder that'll let you grab a smell and enjoy it any time you like. The device, developed by engineers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, works by using 15 chemical-sensing microchips that pick up aromas which it converts into a sort of "digital recipe" that can be reproduced at any time with the help of 96 chemicals that can be mixed, heated, and vaporised at will, resulting in sweet, sweet emissions the human nose can recognize. So far, the researchers say they've replicated the smell of oranges, lemons, apples, bananas, and melons -- even distinguishing between green and red apples. In addition to recording smells for the fun of it, the researchers see the system as a potential boon to online shopping, letting consumers check out fragrances and food before buying them. We're just glad we're not around for the pranks at that laboratory.

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Acer intros three new DLP projectors

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 05:05 e

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

There's some new HD goodness from Acer in their new PH730, PD525PW and PD527D projectors. All three include HDMI, DVI, VGA, Component, Composite and S-Video inputs, and the PH730 (pictured) manages a 1280 x 768 resolution. The other two rock the XGA, but all three can work with 720p/1080i at a 16:9 aspect ratio. For contrast ratio, the PH730 does 2500:1, compared to the 2000:1 of the other two, but the PH730 only does 1,200 lumens while the PD525PW and PD527D go for 2,700 and 3,000 respectively. All three have a lamp life of 4000 hours, but we're not sure exactly when these will be for sale, or for how much.

[Via Crowdedbrain]

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Military-grade "Guard Dog" hard drive degausser

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 04:27 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Storage

When even a $13,000 hard drive degausser leaves you a little worried that someone, somehow might still be able to pick out a few bits of top secret data, you might want to turn to these guys at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, who developed a fool-proof drive destroyer dubbed the "Guard Dog" that works without electricity. Like most drive wiping devices, the Guard Dog employs massively powerful magnets that not only render hard drives useless, but VHS tapes, DAT tapes, ZIP drives, and any other magnetic media to boot. Of course, they didn't just use any old off the shelf magnet, instead designing custom neodymium iron-boron models that produce just the right magnetic field necessary to make that hard drive completely useless. The Guard Dog also speeds things up by letting you crank drives through a mechanism that'll wipe them as they pass through, even if they're enclosed in metal cases. The system was developed in conjunction with defense contractor L-3 Communications Corp who foresees producing hundreds or thousands of the devices for both government agencies and private companies, but probably not for individual use -- if you know how much 125 pounds of neodymium magnets cost, you'll know why.

[Via Digital World Tokyo]

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Hello Kitty Stratocaster goes high-end

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 03:51 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Oh Hello Kitty, you adorable little tease -- usually the items graced with your lovely visage are priced with the budget-conscious Japanese schoolgirl in mind, but frankly we're a bit surprised to see you endorsing a product that's going for an eye-popping $21,625. That's right, for the same cost as almost a hundred of those regular Kittycaster guitars, Sanrio and renowned retailer Mitsukosh are offering a super-limited-edition Stratocaster from Fender that features an over-sized homage to the frisky feline on the pick-guard along with with a blown-up version of her famous signature on the neck. Surprisingly, your twenty grand doesn't even seem to buy the usual gold-plated, jewel-encrusted gaudiness found on most products in this price range, but what you're really paying for here is exclusivity -- Mitsukosh apparently has one of the only three models that were manufactured. Sure, we love us some Hello Kitty, but for this kind of loot we'd rather buy a ticket to Japan and camp out in one of the Sanrio stores for a few weeks, using hundreds of plush Kitties as a mattress.

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ARA K-60 lays claim to world's smallest DVB-T TV

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 03:20 e

Filed under: Portable Video

We can't verify Asuka Semiconductor's claim of having produced the world's smallest handheld DVB-T device, but their new ARA K-60 sure is plenty small. The 4.5 x 3 x 0.8-inch device weighs a mere 6.7 ounces, and boasts a 960 x 240 3-inch LCD. There's A/V out to playback TV on you telly, and a teensy 3 hour battery. No word on price or availability, but we're sure it won't be long until this should be making its way into Korean pockets.

[Via MobileWhack]

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Sony's Microvault Tiny USB drive for the ladies

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 02:47 e

Filed under: Storage

We're still not sure why you'd want to buy a USB thumb drive so small that you'll probably lose it within the first week, but that hasn't stopped companies like Pretec, Lexar, OCZ, and PQI -- and now Sony -- from battling it out until one of them finally achieves the holy grail of a completely invisible storage solution. Well even though they may not be the smallest drives around, Sony's new 1.5-gram Microvault Tiny line is looking to stand out from the crowd by sporting "fashionable" cases for appealing to the female demographic -- although it's not clear how many women will be into outdated designs that resemble 20th Century iMacs. Only available in South Korea for now, the drives range in capacity from 256MB ($30) to 2GB ($124), and in one of the strangest promotions we've ever seen, actually come with a bottle of matching nail polish as a free gift-- so even if you lose the drive, you can still look down at your hands and reminisce about all the good times you and your Tiny had reading and writing data together.

Update: Some eagle-eyed readers have already spotted these devices Stateside at Target, so scratch that part about exclusive South Korean availability.

[Via Shiny Shiny]

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PSP cam spotted again -- looking shinier than ever

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 01:25 e

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Gaming, Peripherals

The last time we spotted the PSP EyeToy, it was slated for a September release and looking pretty shiny. It's looking just the same, but this time Japanese site ITmedia has managed to get a cloeseup with the device. As far as anyone knows, the EyeToy is still due for September, but the picture does reveal the camera to be a 1.3 megapixel model. Sony has been pretty mum about the capabilities of the camera other than a new video chat service, which is due for October, but we're sure they'll find a way to put all that faux-chrome goodness to good use.

[Via Gotakon]

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Lawsuit claims Microsoft's WGA tool is spyware

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 00:55 e

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

You've probably noticed that the Internet's been buzzing lately about Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy software that up until recently was "phoning home" user info every day, and now one Brian Johnson of Los Angeles has turned the issue into a legal matter by filing suit against Redmond in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Johnson's attorney Scott Kamber -- who also represented consumers in that class-action suit regarding the Sony rootkit debacle -- is arguing that a recent version of the WGA package, which was rather inconspicuously pushed to users' computers as part of a security update, fits the legal definition of "spyware" because its existence and purpose weren't plainly disclosed to consumers. Microsoft spokesperson Jim Desler counters this argument by pointing out that the WGA tool is not malicious in nature -- which presumably distinguishes it from the "bad spyware" -- and that the "real issue" here is the "industry-wide problem" of software piracy. Still, Microsoft changed the latest version of the tool by beefing up the licensing agreement and eliminating those daily status reports, so even though Desler calls the suit "baseless," we wouldn't be surprised if Johnson ends up with some hush money to prevent the negative publicity that a trial would surely bring.

[Via Slashdot]

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Powered Shoes take virtual reality input to new level of nerdy

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 00:22 e

Filed under: Gaming, Wearables

We can't say you're going to look like a total stud walking around in your new "Powered Shoes" virtual reality gear, but if you're like us and studliness was never an option, then why not throw all fashion to the wind and strap on a bit of VR gadgetry? The basic premise is the motorized rollerskate wheels, which allow you to stay in place while walking, and track those movements to a simulation or game. Once you get everything up and running you can blaze along at a whole 2 feet per second, which might make virtual world even more boring than this one, but it's the principle of the thing, no?

[Via MAKE]

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Nokia 770 OS upgrade now available

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 23:57 e

Filed under: Handhelds

As promised, Nokia has just posted the Internet Tablet 2006 operating system for download -- although as of this writing you get redirected to an error page -- giving 770 owners access to those handful of new features announced last month. You'll recall that instead of dropping a QWERTY-equipped version of the tablet as we were hoping/expecting, Nokia disappointed more than a few fans by only unveiling a software upgrade that adds an on-screen keyboard along with the Google Talk client. Even worse, Nokia warns that "installed applications designed for OS 2005 will not be compatible with OS 2006 edition and will not be restored even from backup," so kiss your old apps goodbye if you're planning on upgrading. Still, current 770 owners will probably want to take plunge just so they can run programs developed exclusively for the new OS, and hopefully the software 'board will suffice until Nokia takes our advise and changes up the input style in the next generation of WiMax- and webcam-sporting tablets.

[Thanks, Alessandro Z.]

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Intel's F1-inspired Viiv remote

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 23:32 e

Filed under: Media PCs

We wonder what the meeting was like over at Intel HQ when they decided to produce this programmable remote that's designed for controlling your Viiv devices and is shaped like the steering wheel from a BMW F1 car. We wrote a short play describing how we think it went.

Executive 1: It seems like people are seeing Viiv as kind of a novelty. What should we do?
Executive 2: Hmm, maybe we should develop a remote that'll give users access to all of their media without having to switch remotes, thus making Viiv actually useful for accessing content. It can have an array of custom programmable buttons, two of which look like bright blue marker caps, and everything.
Executive 1: Yeah, and it can be shaped like the steering wheel from a race car!
Executive 2: That is a totally sweet idea. When does it come out and how much?
Executive 1: Well we're developing it now, so no word on release date. But judging by how much other companies charge for race car stuff, it's safe to say that it won't be cheap.
Executive 2: Awesome. AMD Live! has no idea what's coming.

Fin.

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New low-intensity pulsed ultrasound device helps re-grow teeth

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 23:08 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We'd gladly trade in most of our gadgets if it meant we never had to go under the drill at the dentist again. But researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada don't want our electronics, they just want a few more years to perfect their low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) technology that they hope will ultimately be able to re-grow lost or severely damaged teeth from the root, eliminating the need for pricey prosthetics and painful procedures. The pea-sized device, which can be held in place by a bracket or a crown, is controlled by a wireless remote and needs to gently massage the gums for 20 minutes a day over the course of four weeks to attain noticeable growth. This tech isn't expected to be available to the public for another two years, so hold off on that all-candy and Red Bull diet you've been planning for just a little longer while you ponder the rather incredible possibility that this method could eventually be used to grow human bones and actually make people taller without subjecting them to any kind of medieval torture.

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Cellphone talkers as bad as drunk drivers?

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 22:46 e

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation

We've heard the word that handsfree setups don't make cellphone driving any safer, but this new study comparing phone use to driving under the influence seems like it's taking things a bit far. Apparently some new research, using a driving simulation device as to not expose any real drivers to the dangers of those who talk, is showing cellphone users to be as bad or worse than the average drunk driver. 40 volunteers used the simulator, taking turns trying it undistracted, with a handheld phone, with a handsfree device and while blowing a 0.08 blood-alcohol level -- the average level of impairment in the US. Three participants ended up rear-ending the car in front of them, and all three were talking on the phone, not drunk. The study noticed little difference between handsfree and handheld phone talkers, and found they were 9 percent slower to hit the breaks, and varied their speed more than normal drivers. Drunk drivers would drive slower, yet more aggressively, and all three groups were under the impression that they weren't impaired. We'd still rather have a talker behind the wheel than a drunk, especially when the blood-alcohol level shoots past 0.08 -- as it tends to do -- but we're guessing legislators will see otherwise and jump at the chance to clamp down on conversationalists.

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JVC's new 32 and 37-inch LCD TVs with fast 120Hz refresh

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 22:25 e

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment

She ain't the prettiest girl on the block but she sure is fast! JVC just announced their intent to bring their previously Japanese-only, 120Hz Clear Motion Drive LCD TVs to these United States. That's 120 frames per second, son -- the original frame plus a new, interpolated frame -- which is about double the rate of your typical, god-fearin' LCD panel. The result? Less blurring, flicker, and a brighter picture with fewer ghost images to boot. The $2,700, 37-inch LT-37X987 and $2,000, 32-inch LT-32X987 bring ATSC/QAM/NTSC tuning, a 1366 x 768 native resolution, JVC's fifth-gen D.I.S.T upscaling tech, 6-millisecond response time, and plenty of the ol' in-and-outs including 2 x HDMI inputs, 2 x component inputs, 2 x S-Video inputs, a 15 pin D-Sub PC input, optical digital audio out and audio output. Expect the 37-incher to drop in August with the 32-incher set to roll in October.

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Rock's Pegasus 660 and Quaddra TX2 laptops for gamers

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 22:05 e

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

Yo, Rock just dropped two new low-to-mid range gamer laptops into the mix with their Pegasus 660 and Quaddra TX2 (pictured left-to-right, we think). The 6.8-pound Pegasus model brings a 15.4-inch, 1280 x 768 display, Intel Core Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics with 256MB onboard memory, 120GB disk, 2GB RAM, and even a silent mode which kills the fan and throttles back the CPU to a cool runnin' 1GHz. Not big enough, Jack? Then try on the Quaddra TX2 which packs in a 17-inch, 1680 x 1050 pixel, X-Glass anti-reflective screen, AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core proc, Bluetooth, WiFi, 1.3 megapixel cam, and the same GeForce Go 7600 graphics card, disk and RAM squeezed into a 7.7-pound, 1.4-inch thick slab. The Pegasus 660 should pull £1,060/$1,924 while the TX2 will demand just a bit more at £1,175/$2,133. Both should begin shipping in the next few weeks.

[Via Stuff]

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MobiTV now available for Windows Mobile 5.0

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 21:35 e

Filed under: Portable Video

We heard it was coming and sho'nuff, MobiTV just announced the immediate availability of their MobiTV service for Windows Mobile powered phones and devices. When run on WinMo 5.0 Smartphones, the $10/month service supports full-screen viewing, an EPG, and hot TeeVee streaming over WiFi or high-speed 3G-ish nets. And while the press release is just ambiguous enough to make it sound like any WinMo 5.0 Smartphone or PocketPC will work with the service, a bit of digging finds only the Treo 700w, Sprint PPC-6700, Cingular 2125 and 8125, and Motorola Q listed as "supported devices." So you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

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Denon's D-F103 streaming Hi-Fi with 40GB disk

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 21:05 e

Filed under: Home Entertainment

We know it's gotta hurt the likes of Denon to pump those compressed audio files out their quality wares. Still, it brings a tear of joy to the eye to see these pioneers of digital audio embrace convergence so thoroughly. Introducing the Denon D-F103 shelf-system with 40GB disk, CD, USB jack, and Ethernet jack. As you might have already surmised, you can plug-in and play music directly off your USB-equipped DAP, rip your CDs in PCM(WAV) or WMA files straight to disk, and even stream MP3/WAV/WMA audio from any DLNA or Windows Media Connect server on your home network. She'll also play vTuner Internet Radio and backup your PC music over USB to boot. And don't worry about ripping to untitled tracks when disconnected; that disk comes pre-installed with about 350,000 Gracenote CDDB titles. Expected to drop in Japan in late August for ¥161,700 or $1,389 in that cool, cool green. Come 'ere Denon, it's noogie time.

[Via Impress]

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Roadmaster's VR3 VRCD400SDU does digital

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 19:22 e

Filed under: Portable Audio, Transportation

We're always happy to welcome another computer-interface-ridden hybrid car stereo / multimedia device to the fold, like Roadmaster's VR3 VRCD400SDU car stereo. Not only does it do aux i (so you can use just about any portable audio player imaginable), but Roadmaster were also thoughtful enough to include an SD slot, USB port, and remote control for playing back MP3 and WMA tracks, with ID3 info showing up on-screen. The single din head won't ding that pocketbook too hard, neither, coming in at a lightweight $140 US, which is even reasonable for other players which might only match its CD player and AM / FM radio.

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Pure's PocketDAB 1500 gives you the 411

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 17:26 e

Filed under: Portable Audio

We don't cover a lot of DAB devices 'round these parts because really, we don't have much cause to in the United States. But just because the bespoke digital audio broadcasting standard has yet to find its way onto American airwaves doesn't mean we can't appreciate a nice DAB toy every now and again, like Pure's new thinner, lighter, more pocketable PocketDAB 1500. Successor to the PocketDAB 2000, the 1500 features an analog FM tuner with RDS, textSCAN, which allows you to pause the text scrolling on-screen should you need to jot it down, a replaceable rechargeable battery, and stock Sennheiser MX300 earbuds. Oh sure, we think £90 (about $160 US) is bit steep for a portable digital radio, ourselves -- unless it's something like an XM or Sirius device that with some memory memory and MP3 playback -- but to each broadcast music listener his or her own.

[Via TechDigest]

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Explay's ultraportable projector says make room

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:34 e

Filed under: Displays, Portable Video

Just about everybody's getting on the portable projector bandwagon; you've got Sony, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Epson, Viewsonic, all with sub-laptop-sized devices being prepared to throw up dimly-LED-lit images onto boardroom walls the business world over. But Explay's about to say balls to that with their new pocketable digital projector, which they claim should hit the market in the first half of 2007. It's not exactly a groundbreaking concept or anything, but ultraportable projectors are definitely about to become the hot new turf for those companies, like PVPro and Digismart, of itching to get theirs to market first.

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The Ultra TV-B-Gone strikes fear in the hearts of couch potatoes

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 13:17 e

Filed under: Home Entertainment

We promised ourselves the TV-B-Gone hat was going to be the last TV-B-Gone hack we presented our dear audience, but when the Ultra TV-B-Gone power blaster found its way in our tip jar, we knew something had to be done. No longer confined to a mere singular IR blaster, Instructables has the skinny on making the Ultra, a super cheap mod which utilizing a matrix of 20 LEDs (though a larger matrix and use of high-powered LEDs is also possible) to achieve a whopping 90-foot line of sight TV outage effect. But basically what sold us on this whole thing -- the B-Gone having failed us in the past in its sole purpose -- was the following quote: "Using this in a regular sized room you are pretty much guaranteed to kill the TV no matter where you point it." You just can't argue with that.

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Hands-on with Napster's new 1GB player

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 11:05 e

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Napster isn't so shy about their new DAPs after all. We just got to spend a little time with Napster's new 1GB PlaysForSure promotional player, and we liked what we saw for the most part. The tiny device probably won't be seen outside of its current role of attracting 1-year subscriptions, but it manages a nice look, decent user interface and a commendable 40 hour battery life -- not bad for $50. Of course, the player's first role is to support DRM10 PlaysForSure files from Napster To Go, but regular old WMA files and MP3s are supported as well, and it doesn't seem that Napster has made an effort to lock down the player from other services. You can also play back MPEG-4 video on the tiny, but nice, 128 x 160 LCD, but you'll be on your own for content since Napster doesn't currently offer any vids. There's also JPEG and FM playback, and everything is accessible via a convenient and fast iPod-like menu system. We'd estimate the player is 10-12mm thick, but while it's shorter than the iPod nano, the player felt comfortable in our large hands, and the buttons were plenty easy to use. It might all come down to your preference of music service, but we can't see this little OEM player standing in your way. Keep reading for some more pics.

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Westinghouse goes 22-inch with new LCD

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 10:10 e

Filed under: Displays

Speak of the devil. We were just chatting up the incoming wave of 22-inch LCDs, and here's Westinghouse with their very own display of the Vista-friendly variety. The LCM-22w2 runs at 1680 x 1050, has a 5ms response time, 300 nits of brightness and a 700:1 contrast ratio. It's a 16:10 widescreen display, but we're not sure about the inputs -- we're guessing DVI and VGA. The 22w2 should be available now for $500.

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Gamepark Holdings releases GP2X breakout board

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 09:08 e

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Good news for GP2X owners: Gamepark Holdings (not to be confused with Gamepark, makers of the similarly-named XGP) has just released a breakout board that will turn your handheld console into a fully-functional, albeit underpowered, home PC. The board plugs into the EXT port on your device and features audio and video outs for hooking up an external monitor and sound system, four USB ports for attaching keyboards, mice, and joysticks, and RS232 and Jtag connectors for reflashing your firmware or running a debugging script on software you've developed. Although the kit -- available now for just $46 -- can be employed to create a home DivX or digital audio system, it will probably be most widely used in building emulation cabinets around the open-source, Linux-powered player.

[Via DCEmu]

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Sirius CEO reveals portable receiver/DAP

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 07:57 e

Filed under: Portable Audio

While XM is already offering its customers live feeds on-the-go through the well-received Pioneer Inno and Samsung Helix, rival Sirius has been rather slow to the starting gate in this department, as its flagship S50 portable only plays back content that was recorded while it was docked. Now, however, it looks like Sirius is finally on the verge of releasing its first DAP with built-in satellite receiver, and Tech Effect even managed to snap a picture of the device when CEO Mel Karmazin briefly flashed it during his keynote at this week's Convergence 2.0 conference. Unfortunately Mel only broke out the chunky-looking player to illustrate a point he was making about the iPod ("I wish it didn't exist," he said, probably only half-jokingly), so all that's known about this unit is its size and the fact that it sports a headphone jack. Still, Mel promises that he'll have the product in stores by the end of the summer, and since it's reportedly in the midst of beta testing, we're expecting to see some leaked specs and photos sooner rather than later -- much sooner if any of you testers would be so kind as to drop us a line.

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How-To: Build your own CNC machine (Part 1)

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 07:21 e

Filed under: Features, Misc. Gadgets

Ready for some hard core gadget creation? If you thought your dremel tool was handy before, in today's How-To we'll start building our own CNC machine. Aside from the geek factor, it can be handy for making things like PC boards without chemicals or maybe some little styrofoam voodoo heads of all your enemies, uh friends.

Gentlemen, stary your soldering irons.

Computer controlled mills have been around for a long time. If you just want to buy oneone, Sherline makes mills that are ready to go (pictured is their CNC ready model -- just add your own motors and controller). But then again, if you wanted to buy one, you probably wouldn't be reading this, now would you? A CNC machine is a lot like a precision drill press with a table that moves in two directions -- seeing a commercial unit like the one above should help you visualize the end goal. We'll be making ours from scrounged, recycled, and adapted parts; today we'll be going over the basic parts we'll need to build our own.

Parts Hunting
For Part 1 of the How-To, we'll go over all the major components of the project and get started with the controller.
The major components of the DIY CNC machine:

Stepper motors
drive positioning screw
3 Axis stepper motor controller
Linear slides

The most important component to determine the construction of your milling machine is the motor. Motors can be purchased from surplus houses, but the cheapest place to get them is from old dot matrix printers. Apple Imagewriters are one of our favorite sources. They contain multiple stepper motors, and the primary is pretty beefy. As a bonus, just about every dot matrix printer has a hardened steel rod that can be useful for our nefarious goals.

A stepper motor is an odd beast. Most motors spin when power is applied, stepper motors contain multiple coils. If the coils are energized in the proper order, the motor will rotate a small amount (a step). We'll take full advantage of the nature of stepper motors with this project. To simplify your life later on, you'll want to find stepper motors with more than four wires. Four wire motors are usually Bipolar motors. They produce more torque, but end up complicating the control circuit. The preferred type of motor for the frugal hobbiest is Unipolar. These usually have five or six wires, and they're pretty easy to work with.

Most stepper motors are labeled. The major points of interest include the voltage, resistance and the number of degrees per step. Knowing the number of degrees per step is vital for configuring the software to properly control the machine later on. For a three axis machine, at the very least you'll want the X and Y axis to both have identical motors. It's not the end of the world if they don't match, but it's more of a pain later on.

The drive screw is the next piece of our project. Commercial units use linear ball screws or linear gears. The commercial parts aren't cheap, but you can get away with some 1/4-inch threaded rod from the hardware store. Instead of anti-backlash nuts, we'll use these handy 1-inch long 1/4-inch nuts. Just about every hardware store has them, and they produce very little play. Try out the hardware at the store because defects in the nut or rod will produce drag that's easily noticeable by spinning the nut on the rod.

To couple the rod to the motor shaft, we'll use vinyl tubing with a pair of collars. The tubing is 1/4-inch inner diameter and prevents binding by allowing some play between the rod and the motor. You can get suitable collars from a model airplane store (The hardware store had some, but they were overpriced). Alternatively, you can make your own like we did from nylon bushings and hex screws.

Finally, we'll need some linear slides. One easy out is to purchase a used or surplus XY table that's built just for this purpose. Custom designs can be built using ball bearings. Above is the linear rail that ShopBot uses. They machine the edge of a piece of steel and use this cool angled roller bearing.

We built this linear slide from a 1/2-inch steel rod and multiple bearing surfaces. It works, but we don't recommend building it if you value your sanity.

Once uou've bought or salvaged a set of motors, you'll need a controller. The controller provides the interface to the computer, drives the motors and can provide some simple feedback to the computer. The stepper controller has to be powerful enough to drive the motors you've selected. We sifted through lots of stepper controller designs looking for one that presented the best value.

In the end we found this design for a relatively simple parallel port interface that originally appeared in a 1994 issue of Nuts and Volts. Today, the expensive UCN5804B is only available as a surplus item, but now the entire controller can be built for about $22-$30 in parts. (If you use a heavier motor like the ones from the Imagewriter, you might need to add some separate power transistors.)

The parts list at the link is a bit outdated, here's our updated shopping list.

3 - UCN5804B - alltronics.com
12 - 1N49355 Diodes - Part 625-1N4935 from Mouser.com
2 - .01uF Capacitors - Part 581-SR155C103KAT from Mouser.com
1 - 10uF Capacitor - Part 140-HTRL25V10-TB from Mouser.com
3 - 4.7k Resistor Network 652-4608X-101-4.7K from Mouser.com (Has an extra resistor, but works fine)
1 - D-Sub 25 pin Male - Mouser, RadioShack, etc.
1 - Barrel power connector - Whatever works for your power supply. (We used a spare 12V power brick)
Stranded Cat-5 is sufficient for wiring
Terminals and male headers are optional, see the page for the circuit.
Heat sinks for the 5804Bs are needed. We used some aluminum channel.
Copper clad PC board (We stock up on ebay every so often)
Etching solution - Ferric Chloride, etc.

We made our own board using the template from the web page. We used similar techniques to the one in part 4 of our iPod Superdock How-To. We reversed the pdf image using Gimp, and printed it onto a laserprinter transparency. This method doesn't create as nice of a trace as the paper, but it's speedier. Clean the board, and keep the paper backing between the plastic and the iron. Once the toner is ironed, just cool it with water and peel.

We etched the board using Ferric Chloride from RadioShack in a disposable Zip-Lock container. It needs to be warm and agitated to work well. The acid and hydrogen peroxide solution etches way faster.

We drilled the board with our drill press and tungsten carbide bits from Drill Bit City. We had to refer to

Compulab's tiny ass PC

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 06:40 e

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

It's nothing new these days to have a full-fledged Pocket PC squeezed into seemingly impossible form factors -- HTC's Star Trek comes quickly to mind -- but we're pretty sure Compulab is breaking some new ground with their CM-X270L mini PC. A mere two-thirds the size of a credit card, the 1.7 by 2.6-inch device holds an XScale processor, 512MB of flash memory, 128MB of RAM, a sound card and 802.11b WiFi. The device also manages extra snazz such as a PCI bus and 4 USB host ports, putting this thing beyond the realm of the average PDA. Obviously, those hugemongeous antennas put a little bit of a damper on this thing's portability, but we're guessing this thing needs a few extra components to get moving anyways, so we'll let 'em fly for now. The best news is that the device not only runs Windows CE and Linux, but goes for $47 a piece if you buy 'em 10,000 at a time. We're sure that smartphone and PDA manufacturers will be more than happy to pass the size and cost savings on to us consumers.

[Via The Inquirer]

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Super-slim laser beams promise to boost optical disc capacity

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 05:58 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Storage

Researchers at Japan's Kyoto University have recently announced a breakthrough method for shaping laser beams that could result in optical disc capacities up to ten times higher than what's current available from state-of-the-art HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. Using several layers of so-called photonic crystals incorporated into a small semiconductor chip, the researchers were able to manipulate a light beam's constituent photons in such a way that the resulting laser output could be shaped into a number of exotic beam patterns -- such as hollow beams, concentric hollow beams, and most importantly for optical disc capacity, solid beams with diameters much smaller than had been previously achievable. The best part about this technology is that the narrow beams can be formed without changing the wavelength of the laser, meaning that the technique could theoretically be applied to existing blue lasers, enabling next-gen optical discs to hold hundreds of gigabytes worth of data. Or, to put this in layman's terms, the $1,000 BD-P1000 you're planning on buying will now be, like, totally obsolete before you even tear open the box.

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Logitec announces line of colorful in-car DAPs

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 05:11 e

Filed under: Portable Audio, Transportation

Japanese manufacturer Logitec -- who, as we found out the hard way, is in no way related to the American firm Logitech -- has just announced a colorful set of in-car DAPs that plug directly into your vehicle's lighter socket. What's more, the MP3- and WMA-capable LAT-FM300U includes both a built-in FM transmitter and line-in jack, so you can broadcast directly to your head unit from either the device itself or from an external player like an iPod. And judging by the $68 price tag and lack of storage information, it sounds like you'll probably need to bring along a more capacious device on trips lasting longer than an hour or so, as we doubt you'll be getting more than 512MB of flash memory when these drop in early August.

[Via Digital World Tokyo]

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Microsoft to team with Samsung on 22-inch LCD for Vista?

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 04:37 e

Filed under: Desktops, Displays

We were just getting used to that whole wave of 21-inch LCDs, when it looks like 22-inchers are going to be the hip new thing in the coming months. A new report is out claiming that Microsoft is working with Samsung to produce a special 22-inch widescreen LCD to work with Windows Vista and be branded with the Microsoft logo. Sounds like they're trying to promote widescreen monitor usage with their new OS, and we're guessing Microsoft wouldn't mind making a few bucks while they're at it. The word from Chi Mei Optoelectronics makes us think that Microsoft and Samsung aren't the only ones to get the 22-inch bug. Dell has reportedly just made a large order for 22-inch widescreen panels from CMO, and LG.Philips and AU are jumping on board as well. There's no telling how heavily Microsoft is going to be recommending 22-inch displays to the users of Aero, but it doesn't look like anybody wants to be left out.

[Thanks, Mr. Kaiser and Will P.]

Read - Microsoft and Samsung team for 22-inch LCD
Read - Dell orders from CMO

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Ben Heckendorn's new, improved nPod

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 04:07 e

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Never one to rest on his laurels,the great Ben Heckendorn has taken his already-stylin' nPod portable 8-bit Nintendo console and reworked it around a smaller "NES on a chip" to come up with a unit that's even more polished and compact than the original. Like the nPod 1.0, this new version is only slightly bigger than those bulky plastic cartridges it plays, yet still manages to include a headphone jack and convenient sliding battery pack powered by four regular AAs. As usual, the talented Mr. Heckendorn is happy to part with the prototype (for the right price), but this time around he's also seeking feedback to gauge the market for a potential limited production run of these devices. If the NES emulator on your smartphone just isn't doing it for you anymore, then head over to Ben's site and let him know how much you'd be willing to throw down for one of these -- he may even equip them with such niceties as a system link and TV out if that's what his adoring public demands. Keep reading if you want to catch a tantalizing glimpse of the nPod 2.0 from behind...

[Via Make]

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Sony Vaio UX180P shipping to US

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 03:23 e

Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

Although the SonyStyle site still lists it under pre-order, the Vaio UX180P non-UMPC is apparently already en route to ecstatic US customers, as at least two of our readers have received shipping confirmations from Sony via email. The Core Solo-powered machines are scheduled to arrive on the sixth of next month, which jibes with Sony's promise of a July release, but we're still a bit surprised that they're getting them out this early -- as you know, we've been burned by Sony a few times before.

[Thanks, Lee and Leland B]

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Microsoft teases with wireless backlit keyboard

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:41 e

Filed under: Desktops, Peripherals

It's not often that you see a teaser campaign for the utilitarian keyboard, so it's safe to assume that a wireless backlit model Microsoft has in the pipeline must be something pretty special. Although not many details are revealed in the flash demo for what is only known as the "ultimate keyboard," it looks to be a Bluetooth-based system that includes a pointing device on the 'board along with a mouse for desk work, with both components seemingly getting their juice through induction from a SplashPad-like mat. Even the illumination system sounds pretty high-tech, as it not only contains a sensor to detect ambient lighting conditions, but actually shuts itself down when it realizes you've stepped away from the keyboard. Like we said, Microsoft is pretty light on the deets here, so you'll have to wait on specs, pricing, and availability until Redmond is good and ready to give them up.

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Plextor's Blu-ray burner, the PX-B900A

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:10 e

Filed under: Desktops, Storage

Nothing we haven't seen before, but Plextor is getting into the Blu-ray burner game with their new PX-B900A. It's all like usual, with 2x speed, BD-R and BD-RE (rewritable) compatibility, and capacities of 25GB and 50GB. The drive also does the DVD-RAM and DVD±R/RW thing, including dual layer. You can even burn CDs, like the Philips version -- something Pioneer failed to included in their BRD-101A. The drive should be available around September or October of this year, but no word on pricing yet.

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SanDisk planning 8GB Sansa e280?

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 01:42 e

Filed under: Portable Audio

So we can't vouch for the validity of the photo you see here, but if we're to believe an Anything But iPod forum member claiming to work as a tester at SanDisk, then it depicts a pre-production version of the unannounced Sansa e280 with a "nano-killing" 8GB of flash memory -- plus a memory card slot to jack that total up to 9GB. Although anything posted to forums should be viewed with no small amount of skepticism, a WHOIS query supposedly confirms that this member was indeed posting from SanDisk's Virginia campus when he revealed his info, and the fact that the pic looks pretty legit only further enhances this rumor's believability. Plus, Apple will surely boost the nano's capacity at some point or another, so it's obvious that SanDisk will have to do the same if it hopes to shed its runner-up status -- because simply insulting potential customers doesn't seem like a great way to gain market share.

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Samsung's new SyncMaster CX913P 19-inch LCDs with crazy swivel action

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 01:12 e

Filed under: Displays

We're not quite sure what kind of neck problems would be required or caused by the use of these "freedom without restrictions" 19-inchers from Samsung, but they look pretty nice all the same. The CX913P LCD comes in white and black, features a 6ms response time and a 1500:1 contrast ratio. There's also a USB 2.0 hub, which looks to reside in the base. The displays seem to be available now in Korea for W490,000 -- about $511 USD.

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Dell looking into flaming laptop incident

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 00:25 e

Filed under: Laptops

You've got to hand it to Dell; even though its laptops may burst into flames at the most inopportune moments, at least the company has the good sense to conduct a prompt and public investigation into the matter (although the worldwide coverage of those "inflammatory" photos probably helped speed things up just a bit). Apparently the charred remains from that fateful conference in Osaka, Japan have been beamed back up to the mother ship, where Dell engineers are furiously working to discover how their product turned into a pyrotechnics show that amused and frightened us all. As usual, everyone's looking to pin this incident on that easiest of scapegoats -- the malfunctioning battery -- but whatever the problem turns out to be, we're sure hoping it gets fixed before another notebook decides to disobey the "no smoking" sign and light up on an airplane.

[Photo courtesy of The Inquirer]

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PLEN keeps trim 'n fit with skating activities

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 23:50 e

Filed under: Robots

We suppose it's not really fair compare to anybody, even a robot, to our atrocious skills on a skateboard, but it sure looks like PLEN could manage fairly well against us in a street challenge. Even in his time off, PLEN takes to a bit of roller skating, and we already know about his penchant for the dance. Sounds like PLEN is on a mission to set an example for today's young robots in physical fitness, but the $2,200 price tag is still a bit hefty. Still, at 9-inches and 1.54 pounds, PLEN is putting the hurt on most consumer-ish humanoids in the mobility department.

[Via MobileWhack]

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D-Link releases RangeBooster line of draft-N gear

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 23:27 e

Filed under: Networking

Probably feeling left out now that all its competitors have released gear conforming to the troubled draft-802.11n WiFi standard, D-Link has finally entered the game with a pair of routers that promise increased range and throughput over traditional 802.11/a/b/g equipment while maintaining compatibility with previously deployed products. So far the reviews we've read about similar routers from Linksys, Buffalo, and Netgear have not been all that positive, so we're not expecting too much from the 3-antenna RangeBooster N 650 and 2-antenna Rangebooster N, although the fact that you can pick up the latter for under a hundred bucks may convince you to give it a try. Still, you're probably not gonna get anywhere near the bandwidth that D-Link promises, and with the controversy over 802.11n still raging on, you're probably better off with a MIMO-equipped 802.11g model instead.

Read- RangeBooster N 650
Read- RangeBooster N
[Via PCMag]

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Toshiba releases business-minded Tecra A8 laptop

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 23:05 e

Filed under: Laptops

Toshiba has gone a bit "lappy happy" this week, announcing yet another 15.4-inch machine to join the two new notebooks and nine new configurations of current models that we spotted earlier. This time around, the company is targeting corporate IT buyers looking for durability on the cheap, playing up the new Tecra A8's suite of EasyGuard technology -- which features the same hard drive and keyboard protection, biometric security, and one-touch presentation button found in the consumer-level LifeSmart package. As far as specs go, you can choose from among a number of setups sporting either Celeron M or Core Duo processors, 512MB or 1GB of RAM, between 60GB and 100GB worth of storage, CD/DVD combo drive or DVD SuperMulti drive, and 802.11b/g WiFi from Atheros or 802.11a/b/g from Intel. Available immediately, these models range from $700 for the Celeron M config to $1,349 for a rig packing a T2400 CPU and that dual-layer burner.

[Via Mobile Tech Review]

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Pegaso's VIBONE EZ-80WP: for underwater, skull vibrating fun

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 22:43 e

Filed under: Portable Audio

Here's the tired buzzword, catch-all product for the day: Pegaso's waterproof, bone-conducting VIBONE EZ-80WP headset. Besides being yellow and dark gray to camouflage your ear-grub, these babies vibrate the skull, not the air, in order to bring the beat to your auditory nerve. It's that little trick which makes 'em ideal for use underwater, or in space for that matter, you decide chief. Available starting July 15 in Japan for ¥19,800 or a whopping $170 bills. Hmm, reminds us this little ditty: the skull-bone's connected to the, Vi-bone, the Vi-bone's connected to the, ass-hat...or something like that.

[Via Impress]

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Verizon Wireless finds soul, wants to prorate early termination fees

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 22:23 e

Filed under: Cellphones

We tend to give our wireless carriers a pretty tough time around here, but not without just cause. Case in point: early exit fees. It's semi-understandable to charge the $150 to $200 contract termination fee when folks cancel near the beginning of their two-year contracts, however, that's a bit steep if you cancel say, 18 to 23 3/4 months in. Verizon Wireless, however, has gone on record with plans to prorate early termination fees starting this fall. If so, they would be the first major US carrier to lesson exit fees on departing customers the closer they got to the end of their contract. That's certainly a nod in the direction of consumer satisfaction and welcome news for us early adoptin' nomads with an innate fear of committal. Sure, regulators must still "review the details" but the FCC chairman, Kevin Martin, already seems stoked by the benefit to customers in what "could signal a new trend among wireless carriers." We'll just have to sit tight for now and hope these dominos begin a rapid, and timely tumble.

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The Mini koobox: AOpen's MiniPC in disguise

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 22:03 e

Filed under: Desktops

What do you do when you're a maker of just another mini PC? Relaunch under a new name of course. Calling itself the "first small form-factor Linux machine on the market" (which isn't even remotely true) the Linspire Mini Koobox is just the AOpen MiniPC running Linspire's flavor of Linux, all bundled up and shoved out the door of Mirus Innovations. Unfortunately, this ain't the Core Duo MiniPC CNET was so impressed with, this dog brings a 1.5GHz CeleronM 370 proc, 256MB DDR2 RAM, a 40GB, 5400RPM disk, slot loading DVD combo drive, and the usual suite of USB 2.0, Firewire, and media-outs. In fact, this is nearly the same box AOpen was touting last year only this time without the Mac mini, ehem, inspired dress. Priced at $400, they throw in speakers, a mouse, and keyboard this time and maybe even a little whine.

[Via PRNewswire]

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Dell expands recycling program, no purchase required

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 21:33 e

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

PC manufacturers and governments alike are catching on to the fact that the average, well-meaning consumption sloth would love to recycle their gear, as long as it's free and someone else does the work. Dell, Apple and others offer programs which allow free recycling of product with the purchase of new, presumably, replacement gear. Now Dell has one-upped the industry by allowing Dell owners to arrange for free-pickup of any Dell-branded product, anytime -- no purchase required. After Dell customers enter their asset tag(s) on Dell's recycling website, they simply print out the pre-paid air bill and follow the instructions to pack and schedule the collection of their equipment. Yeah, ok, there's still effort involved and there's always the risk of your Ditty ending up in the digital dump, but until toll-booth operators or other robotic life forms can be dispatched, it's about as close to effortless as your gonna get, here?

[Via CNET]

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Toshiba's 4GB SDHC card announced

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 21:03 e

Filed under: Storage

Toshiba has been quietly undercutting the US, SD card market for years hawking their wares under the brands of PNY and Dane-Elec among others. Now, they've stepped out from behind the curtain with their new, self-branded, 4GB SDHC (SD 2.0) cards which will initially feature a minimum write speed of 4MB/s (class 4) with the promise of 32GB cards in the coming years. Said to begin shipping globally in September for an undisclosed price, Tosh's foray into these next-gen, SD-incompatible cards for FAT32-enabled hosts will join Panny's roughly $265, 4 gigger to help keep the price down on yet another memory card format nobody wants.

[Via DigitalCameraInfo]

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Mobile ESPN launches Samsung ACE

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 19:34 e

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Video

It's thin, but not too thin; chic, but nothing your butchier friends are gonna call you a metro for having one;, it's got features, just not many, and none are really all that impressive. Yes, that's right, it's Mobile ESPN's second cellphone, the Samsung ACE, otherwise known as the A900. Expect the same set of features (Bluetooth, swiveling camera, EV-DO, audio and media playback) as its counterpart, but with a $99 price tag, a black paint job, and ESPN logos all over the damn thing. So thank you no, we'll continue holding out for Mobile ESPN2 to launch so we can catch some real football games (and spelling bee championships, etc.).

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Intel launches Core Duo T2700 2.33GHz processor

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 18:02 e

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Until now if you wanted to go Yonah and get your Core Duo on, your options were capped at 2.16GHz -- just ask any MacBook (Pro) owner. Well, the wait for something a shred faster is no more, as Intel's now officially pimping, however quietly, their Core Duo T2700, the 2.33GHz version of their dual core mobile-optimized chip, which will sell for more than $600 in bulk. Nobody ever said it was cheap living at the top of the computing performance food-chain, now did they?

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HDMI's mini-plug looks like this

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 16:48 e

Filed under: Displays

Oh, for those not paying excruciatingly close attention, that HDMI 1.3 spec that we talked briefly about before also includes a mini-HDMI connector option for use with your portable devices -- say, camcorders for example. And just in time, too, as we certainly wouldn't want DisplayPort or UDI (Unified Display Interface) -- both of which being new display interconnect standards with rather small connectors -- to gain any undue traction in the market before the 800-pound gorilla's had its run of things.

[Via HD Beat]

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The Magritte laser-etched Apple

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:47 e

Filed under: Laptops

Ceci n'est pas une PowerBook.

[Via Make: Blog]

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Early custom Kraftwerk vocoder on the auction block

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 14:15 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

You wax faux-nostalgic about the heyday of early robo-Kraut-rock, your early signed pressing of Radio-Activity is rivaled only by your original Neu! Super / Neuschnee 7-inch, and you got a belly laugh at that one scene about the record the nihilists once cut in The Big Lebowski. Kraftwerk fans, today is your lucky day. The original one-of-a-kind prototype vocoder Kraftwerk pictured on the rear cover art of and used to record "Ananas Symphonie" and "Kristallo" on their 1973 release Ralf & Florian. As of the time of this writing it's already up to five grand, so if you want yourself an extremely expensive piece of history for electronics and electronic music, you'd better get a move on, schnell.

[Via Music Thing]

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Apple starting to swap out those dirty MacBooks?

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:27 e

Filed under: Laptops

As with many things when it comes to AppleCare support, your mileage may vary, but AppleInsider apparently started to receive word that the Macbook discoloration issue is starting to result in some few-or-no-questions-asked returns, Apple simply offering up whole laptop replacements just like that. Now, we're not guaranteeing results or anything should you march that blemished MacBook into an Apple Store and foist it upon the first Genius you see, but it's a start, right? Anyone else having good luck getting their laptop taken care of?

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CE-Oh no he didn't! Part X - Hirai tired of Microsoft copycats

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 11:41 e

Filed under: Gaming

We're quickly learning that the real gold mine of our CE-Oh no he didn't! posts is Sony, home to blustering executives prone to spewing a seemingly never ending stream of pithy, entertaining commentary on the industry as their flagship game and media device lapses further and further into delay. Up on the chopping block today is Hirai-san, SCEA President who told PlayStation Magazine the following:

"Every time we go down a path, we look behind and [Microsoft is] right there - we just can't shake these guys. I wish that they would come up with some strategies of their own, but they seem to be going down the path of everything we do. If you look at their strategy in other business areas as well, they tend to do that."

Really, Sony? Microsoft follows you around? Wait, didn't Sony shun Microsoft's tiered console pricing scheme, only to adopt it in the PS3? And wasn't the PlayStation originally only a response to their failed partnership with Nintendo? And wasn't the PSP merely a response to the hegemonic success of the Game Boy? And what about the new motion controller developers told us was a last minute feature creep to counter Nintendo's Wiimote? And the PS3 online service, slated for introduction long after Xbox Live? Sorry guys, you're not winning any hearts and minds when you try to pull the hype-woven wool over the everybody's eyes.

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Researchers develop stealth radar system

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 10:42 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Researchers at Ohio State's ElectroScience Laboratory say they've created a radar system that that is virtually undetectable when used, and able to penetrate solid walls to boot -- no doubt a significant boon to military, law enforcement, and disaster rescue operations. The radar works by scattering a very low-intensity signal across a wide range of frequencies, effectively disguising itself as random noise, but apparently not actually interfering with devices because its bandwidth is much broader than the signals it's hiding in. Although it's hardly the first to pull off wall penetration, the entire radar system can be built from components totaling less than a hundred bucks. But hold up before you run out to Radio Shack, because it shouldn't come as much surprise that they aren't providing detailed DIY plans. In fact, it sounds like those industrious Ohioans already got this system patented and are looking to license the IP -- so cheap gear or not, when it comes to the tech you gotta pay up or shut up.

[Via Physorg]

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Analyst analysis: nano to hit 12GB, coming in Q4

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 09:51 e

Filed under: Portable Audio

We all know the stock demons deciding Apple's current share prices don't much like it when analysts predict product delays, but at least disparate market research and analysts are coming together on a somewhat cohesive picture of the next nano. Last week Gartner predicted a 10 and 12GB nano launch for Q406, nothing unusual so we passed on it -- but today Apple's stock took a tumble when Shaw Wu from American Technology Research announced they believe the new nanos -- which they expect to jump only to 4GB and 8GB -- will be delayed until December, while the (true) video iPod might not see the light of day until 2007. What did Shaw blame the delay on? No, not content deals, NAND memory shortages, or anything else of the like, Wu's blaming it on the transition from certain PortalPlayer chipsets that was reported a couple months back, which to the best of our knowledge wasn't even expected to affect their higher end non-flash offerings.

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ReplayTV official (re)launches

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 08:27 e

Filed under: Media PCs

Looks like ReplayTV is pretty confident about the progress of this early beta program of theirs, since not not even a month since opening up pre-release downloads of their newly reinvigorated and resurrected ReplayTV product, we're already seeing the launch announcement. You'll be able to get your ReplayTV PC Edition in a bundled pack included with a Hauppauge WinTV tuner, as expected, or if you already have the right hardware you can snag the PC software release for $99.95 (with a $20 annual EPG service fee per year, of course). We won't compare that given retail price to the whole free TiVo thing because ReplayTV and TiVo are now officially on total opposite ends of the DVR spectrum, but when you're looking at ReplayTV versus a Media Center PC, we can imagine some scenarios where it'd be a little difficult to justify that cost. Then again, you are getting such features as Surprise Me (think: TiVo WishList combined with recommendations to find programming with your favorite actors, directors, etc.), fast searches, and a whole slew of other features the other guys have long since used (like show overlap management, program grouping, custom channel lists, and so on). Sorry though everybody, you're still gonna have to wait until September to officially make over that PC into a ReplayTV box, so if you're in the market right now for a new HTPC DVR and didn't get in on that beta, you're gonna have to look elsewhere.

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ReplayTV officially (re)launches

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 08:27 e

Filed under: Media PCs

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Starfire Optical Range -- a death ray for science's sake

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 07:02 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We're rather impressed with the US Air Force and their Starfire project. It's not every day you get to build a death ray on a desert hill in New Mexico and write it off as a scientific endeavor. The premise is that since the atmosphere diffracts light, messing up the view of ground-based optical telescopes, the Starfire shoots a laser 56 miles into the mesosphere and measures the distortion to adjust the telescope optics. Images from the Starfire are 40 times more accurate than regular, but the laser technology is coincidentally multi-purpose: "We don't hide the fact that it could help build an anti-satellite weapon," says the installation's chief, "if you choose to do it." Our thoughts exactly.

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Switched On: Why Microsoft would break Windows

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 06:33 e

Filed under: Desktops, Features, Misc. Gadgets, Laptops

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about the future of technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

Last week's Switched On discussed how Microsoft would go about creating a next-generation PC, but such a leap forward would likely have to be consumer-focused and incompatible with Windows. Why would Microsoft create a new computing platform aimed at the same usage scenarios as today's PCs?

First, there's a market. Nowadays, we have very high PC penetration in the US, and the kind of advanced technological showcase I'm considering wouldn't be suitable for developing countries like the One Laptop Per Child project, but surely there are enough early adopters who would flock to the state of the art for a PC that offered as radical a break with the past as the Mac did in 1984 -- even as a second PC.

Second, creating a new consumer platform would help alleviate outcries from Microsoft's existing hardware partners. Much of HP's and certainly Dell's bread is buttered by business users. Windows -- or at least its user interface conventions -- "work" for many of the productivity tasks that businesses need. In any case, there is tremendous infrastructure around them. Businesses are also slow to adopt new versions of Windows, much less a new paradigm of computing. However, some verticals can won over sometimes, the way Apple rose to dominate the publishing business (or at least the art and layout portions of it) once upon a time.

A Microsoft PC 3.0 would likely be aimed at high-end consumers or prosumers, unlike many of Microsoft's watered-down entry-level products such as MSN TV and the MSN Companion that was aimed at non-PC households. Furthermore, and keeping in mind Microsoft's real strength in developing software, Microsoft could effectively develop a bundled suite of applications -- equivalent to 1984's MacWrite and MacPaint or today's iLife -- that exploit the company's new architecture, and not have to worry about anti-trust scrutiny.

Third, with open source and Web-based applications increasingly nipping at the hooves of the company's cash cows, Microsoft must do more to distance itself from today's GUIs. Most PC users take conventions such as mice, windows, icons and menus for granted today. These tools and cues may be easy to use once you understand their concepts, but they are not intuitive.

I remember back in the early '90s observing one woman's first encounter with a Macintosh. She put the mouse up to the display, thinking that's how it controlled on-screen elements. Just as DOS users -- forced to unlearn old habits -- sometimes had a harder time learning Mac OS or Windows than those who had never used a computer before, one challenge would be the massive installed base of GUI users might find a superior new user interface difficult to master.

Finally, it would provide a place to showcase many of the advanced concepts Microsoft has been investing billions in R&D into. It's easy to lose track of the number of speeches where Microsoft has pointed to advanced UI concepts such as stylus and voice input, but adding such capabilities to Windows will be an awkward retrofit for the foreseeable future. Even UMPC, its boldest form factor proposal in some time, has been criticized for being a poor fit for Windows' large-screen assumptions. Microsoft would also silence innovation critics that have long accused them of merely copying Apple and, more materially, could be engineered to be free of the malware pests that haunt Windows today.

Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group and a contributing editor for LAPTOP. Views expressed in Switched On are his own. Feedback is welcome at fliptheswitch@gmail.com.

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Verizon and Actiontec bring 100Mbps FiOS to homes

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 06:11 e

Filed under: Networking

For the chosen few who have access to Verizon's FiOS fiber-optic broadband network, they're about to get quite the speed boost. The already bandwidth-generous service is getting upped to 100Mbps for home users with the help of a new router from Actiontec designed to Verizon's spec. 100Mbps speeds have been available to business customers for a while, but now Verizon is ready to spread the love to mere consumers. The router, cleverly titled the MI-424-WR, includes wireless networking, a firewall and remote diagnostics tools to better assist consumers in administrating their new speedy networks. Verizon is also rolling out a new technology to allow the use of coaxial cable instead of Ethernet, to allow for easier home installations. This will speed and cheapen rollout, which means we'll hopefully see these types of speeds before they stick us in a nursing home.

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Delphi hits up GM SUV owners with high-end navigation system

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 05:56 e

Filed under: GPS, Transportation

Despite their troubles, Delphi is still kicking it with their auto add-on business, now pushing a premium navigation system designed for most 2003-2006 GM light trucks and SUVs, including the Chevy Tahoe, Suburban, Trailblazer, GMC Envoy, Yukon, and Cadillac Escalade, among others. The Delphi TNR800 (Touch Screen Navigation Radio) combines DVD-based GPS navigation with AM/FM/CD capabilities in a package sporting a fairly largish 6.5-inch touchscreen that blends in neatly with your vehicle's console. What's more, the system is able to interact with other pre-installed GM options like XM, On-Star, DVD systems, and CD changers, as well as the vehicle's computer system itself, picking up speed information and no doubt telling you how good or bad a driver you are. All this comes at a price, of course -- $1,999 when it drops before the end of the month.

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Palm and Xerox finally settle Graffiti dispute

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 05:45 e

Filed under: Handhelds

So we weren't even aware that this was an issue anymore, but apparently Xerox and Palm have still been battling over that "Unistrokes" handwriting recognition patent which caused us to waste several minutes of our lives learning a handful of new Graffiti 2 characters oh so long ago. Battling up until today, that is, because after nine years the two companies have finally come to a mutually-acceptable agreement, wherein Palm caves and pays Xerox $22.5 million. The deal does net Palm paid-up licenses on a total of three Xerox patents -- licenses that also apply to Access PalmSource and 3Com -- as well as a so-called seven-year "patent peace," in which the two sides agree to stop fussing and fighting about infringements pertaining to certain technologies. Does this agreement mean that we can expect to see the triumphant return of Graffiti 1 on future Palm PDAs? We're not sure, but frankly, now that we've moved on to packing QWERTY-equipped Treos, we don't really care.

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Microsoft demos panoramic cam for RoundTable

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 02:59 e

Filed under: Digital Cameras

If you actually made it all the way through that rather dense post from the other day on what Microsoft is now calling its Unified Communications Platform, then you probably remember us mentioning a new software package called RoundTable that gives users a panoramic view of all the other participants at the other end of a web-conference. Well now we've spied the first pics of that 360 degree camera which enables this immersive experience -- developed out of a Microsoft project called RingCam -- thanks to a recent demonstration featuring company employees and sitcom stars engaged in a scripted debate over what to order for lunch. As we saw at the mock meeting, users are able to toggle between viewing the entire remote group or just the active speaker, with RoundTable also allowing the speaker to broadcast documents or PowerPoint slides directly to participants' monitors. Like most of the other hardware and software elements that are part of the new platform, both RoundTable and the complementary cam will be available to business-types sometime during the second quarter of next year.

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Klegg gets busy on line of HD plasmas

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 02:15 e

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Now that they've thoroughly cornered the market on spurious "world's smallest" color MP3 player claims, Klegg is concentrating on something quite a bit larger: HD plasma displays. Their new line comes in 42, 50, 55 and 63-inch flavors, and all four displays are framed in some snazzy aluminum. Klegg claims to have a special TFT anti-glistening liquid crystal layer in their displays to improve contrast and picture definition, and with a 10,000:1 contrast ratio we can't argue much with their claims until we see it in action. The displays go with the fairly standard 1366 x 768 resolution, and accept 720p and 1080i picture from HDMI, DVI and component sources. The displays include an ATSC HD tuner, and plenty of other nice interfaces. No word on pricing, but the displays should be available now from select dealers.

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Sidekick 3 available to current T-Mobile customers

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 01:47 e

Filed under: Cellphones

It pays to be a T-Mobile customer: while the rest of the country will have to endure nearly two more weeks of excruciating waiting to get their hands on a Sidekick 3 (well, except for us), current Mobbers have been snatching up the new device since it became available at one minute after midnight. Agreeing to a one-year contract extension will net you an SK3 for $350, while two more years of living the Mob life will knock off another fifty bucks, and a "naked" unit will set you back an even $400.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this is]

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Philips adds a new Skype phone to their VoIP lineup

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 00:53 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

It's not quite as sexy as that Windows Live Messenger VOIP4331S phone from them we spotted a few weeks ago, but Philips' new VOIP321 cordless Skype phone should do nicely for someone wanting a bit of "old school" cordless phone comfort for their VoIP calls. Like the 433 unit, this 321 model is based on DECT technology to enhance security and voice quality. The phone has buddy list ability, polyphonic ringtones, and the specs just get more boring from there. No word on price, but you should be able to get your Skype-on with this thing, in the US at least, this July.

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Kodak, Martha Stewart partner on product line

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 00:33 e

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Misc. Gadgets

Now that America's favorite homemaker/inside trader is back to full steam following her brief incarceration, it seems that we may be in for another wave of branded products reminiscent of her previous assault on K-Mart shelves, as Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Kodak have just announced plans to jointly release a line of personalized photo swag. Available in late September from both companies' websites, the MSLO-designed lineup will include such exciting products as photo books, stationary, calendars, stickers, and occasion-specific cards that customers can slap their uploaded photos onto -- certainly nothing new, but now the process comes with Ms Stewart's coveted seal of approval. The multi-year agreement means that we can expect the customizable offerings to expand into other categories such as food and gardening, and it looks like Martha herself is quite confident that the venture will succeed, as she reportedly bulked up her portfolio with more Kodak and MSLO stock just hours before the deal was announced.

[Via DigitalCameraInfo, photo courtesy of BusinessWire]

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Swann's Micro DVR brings surveillance "to the masses"

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 00:11 e

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Misc. Gadgets, Household

Some might call it a digital camera, but Swann's Micro DVR does have certain qualities that recommend it to our inner spy. All the basics are covered: there's a color camera, LCD screen and 128MB of memory, but the Micro DVR can handle a 24 hour shift with its 24 hour Li-Ion battery and ability to use external USB memory sticks to supplement its paltry amount of included storage. You can also run the unit off of its AC adapter for seriously long-term stakeouts, and the camera's AVIs and JPEGs can be easily transported to your PC with the included software. Sadly, this Micro DVR is not for budget espionage, demanding a hefty $899, but there's a price that must be paid for fugly spy gear of questionable usefulness.

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Study finds e-voting machines short on security

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 23:49 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

A recent report from the Task Force on Voting System Security, at New York University's rather ominous sounding Brennan Center for Justice has determined that the e-voting machines currently utilized in 26 states have serious security issues. The machines currently use paper receipts to verify a voter's selection, but only regular audits of collected data can ensure that the numbers kept in the machine actually match those printed on the slips. As of right now, many states and counties are not required to perform these audits, leaving plenty of room for malicious misrepresentation. Luckily, the report also claims that other fixes, such as banning electronic devices in booths and eliminating wireless components, are so simple they could easily be implemented for 2006's election season, so you should be able to cast your vote with confidence, at least until the whole world adopts the American Idol-style SMS voting the Swiss have been messing around with.

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PlusID by Privaris does biometric security on a fob

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 23:28 e

Filed under: Wireless

If you, or your employees, are getting sick of carrying an ever-growing array of passwords and keycards, Privaris is hoping they have a solution for you. The plusID system uses biometrics to read your fingerprint -- not your face, brain or heart -- with fobs that communicate via RFID with many existing security systems, such as HID, Indala and Kantech. The plusID75, which begins shipping in August, is USB and Bluetooth compatible, uses a "tamper-resistant secure processor" that stores data right on the device rather than in a centralized database and will go about 1,000 uses before needing a recharge. A lower-end model, the plusID60, also appears to be available on the product page, lacking in the Bluetooth and one-time password implementation, presumably so it'll take up less budget space. Of course we'll still have our reservations about transmitting sensitive data with these, at least until we've heard some reviews -- or the CIA starts using them to get into their underground labs, or better yet, their guns.

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California launches "mandatory" cellphone recycling program

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 23:06 e

Filed under: Cellphones

The Golden State has always been fairly legislation-happy when it comes to keeping things green, and now they're trying to "Keep California Beautiful" with a new program to require cellphone recycling. Californians have been restricted from throwing phones into the trash since February 8, 2006, but as of July 1 all cellphone retailers in California will be required to establish a collection and recycling program. Recycling will be free, but if even that is too much of a hassle, you can visit the KCB website to get a postage paid box for sending your old phone to a happy resting place from the comfort of your own home. KCB will also provide postage-paid collection boxes to businesses for collecting from employees and customers, so the program shouldn't cause much of an inconvenience. Unless, of course, you wanted to mix a bit of arsenic and beryllium into your water supply.

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Get more mileage from that Hummer

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 22:46 e

Filed under: Transportation

Nothing, we mean nothing, says success like rollin' in a big fat Hummer eh sparky? Only thing is, you can't stand the thought of those accusatory stares from your fellow highwaymen as you lumber along sucking-up fuel. Well, we guess you never heard of the Mileage Maximizer then? Don't sweat it, 'cause two friendly Detroit, rock city Hummer dealerships have, and they'll happily sell you the $190 wonder mod while touting its 30% increase in fuel efficiency. The promotion has been so successful at selling new Hummers in fact, that these boys are now considering expanding the modification to more stores and vehicles. Sure, GM and Hummer officials don't endorse the application of the "Vortex Valve" to the vehicle's intake manifold and may not even honor warranties. And just you never mind that no one will stand by those unofficial claims of increased efficiency or that tampering with the emission controls on EPA certified vehicles is, ehem, illegal. You go right on feeling better about yourself... after-all, you tried, right?

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ADTec's AD-SDH SD cards: waterproof and fast

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 22:26 e

Filed under: Storage

Yeah, we've seen waterproof SD cards before. In fact, as things rapidly commodify, waterproofing seems to have become the new pink-standard of the witless, marketeer. Still, these super happy, go fast, AD-SDH SD cards from ADTec Japan are quick with a high-speed transfer rate of 20MB/sec -- ideal for smooth video capture or support for rapid stills shot under the soggiest of conditions. On sale any day now in Japan starting at ¥2,980 (about $26) for the 512MB stick on up to ¥8,980 (or $77) for the 2GB jobbie.

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Alpine's KCE-415i car interface for iPod video

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 22:06 e

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video, Transportation

As followup to that audio-only Alpine KCA-420i iPod interface from oh, about 2 years ago, it looks like Alpine has been quietly pumping out an iPod video capable KCE-415i unit in Europe for the last month. Yet a North American KCA-415i version is, at best, stil only on display on the trade show circuit. The E-variety 415i retails for about $100 and allows you to play/pause, skip, fast-forward/rewind the main 5G iPod directly from your Alipine MultiMedia station or overhead monitor with additional controls available from the Alpine head unit, remote control, or iPod itself. The interface is seen by your Alpine system as an external DVD source and not only charges your iPod's battery, but allows the iPod to be switched on/off via your car's ignition system. The unit provides composite or S-Video outs and as you'd expect works with a wide-variety of Alpine monitors. So just kick-in the autosync on your iTunes season subscriptions and you'll never suffer the lack of fresh, child numbing content on those long-haul trips again.

[Thanks, Jeff G]

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Xbox 360 hacked for homebrew and bigger hard drive?

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 21:36 e

Filed under: Gaming

An anonymous yet trusted source in the Xbox hacker community just released a few sceenshots to show his rather impressive progress -- if it turns out to be legit. One shot displays an expansive 451GB of free space on the default hard drive -- implying he's managed to finagle a new 500GB drive into the 360 -- while the other two purport to be views of Xbox 1 homebrew running on the 360. Both capabilities would be pretty major developments, but they'd also make for a couple of rather easy Photoshop jobs, so we'll just have to wait to see what comes of all this. Even if they've managed to emulate Xbox 1 hardware, the development community will have just as much of an uphill battle as the backwards compatibility team at Microsoft does to get things like XBMC running full-on (total redevelopment notwithstanding). And that's a big if.

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Sony's NW-A1200 8GB Walkman straight outta Japan

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 21:06 e

Filed under: Portable Audio

We know some of you have been counting the days on you calendar for this one, and now it looks like Sony's NW-A1200 MP3 player is finally getting a release in the US after previously being exclusive to Japan, and will launch here in two new colors: violet and pink. Better get used to 'em cause they're also the only colors available, which is all the more curious since Sony already released a slick-looking black version in Japan -- is it really so hard to release it here too? Style preferences aside, the player still looks like a solid enough device, with MP3, WMA, and AAC support, 20 hours of promised battery life (on AAC, of course), and a 1.5-inch OLED screen. Sony's taking pre-orders now for $199.95 with an expected ship date of July 20th.

[Thanks, decemberice]

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TiVo Desktop 2.3 hack lets you bump transcode resolution

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 20:26 e

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Video

Transcoders got their wish last week with TiVo Desktop 2.3 and its conversion tools that finally allow users an easy way to get MPEG-4 or H.264 video all prepped for a portable device. Unfortunately, it's QVGA or bust with video conversions, which puts a damper on use with the PSP and other higher-res devices -- real and imagined. Luckily, our pal Dave Zatz has a hack all prepped for setting the resolution to whatever your heart desires, and it really doesn't take a lot of technical knowhow to do. So head on over and get transcoding, or just wait for QVGA-induced blindness to set in. Your call.

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Koolance's pricey Xbox 360 cooling kit

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 19:31 e

Filed under: Gaming

We're not sure what type of person would spend as much on cooling their Xbox 360 as they spent on the console itself, but the folks at Koolance must think they're out there, buried under bags of Doritos and aging laptops in dank cellars; probably why they're releasing a heavy duty liquid cooling kit for the hefty sum of $394.99 US. The kit (available in silver or black) includes Koolance's Exos-LT cooling system, CPU and GPU liquid blocks, an AC power adapter, and mounting hardware for the Xbox. However, Koolance is quick to warn that performing the necessary modifications to your Xbox is "not for the faint of heart" and that it will certainly void your warranty, meaning that there's a good chance you'll inflict more harm on your console by messing with it than a little over-heating could ever do -- and you'll be stuck without a way to return it. Par for the course though, right?

[Via Joystiq]

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Nintendo's DS Lite gets pretty in pink

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:08 e

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

We're all well beyond the point where there's any kind of surprise when a device gets made over in yet another color -- especially pink -- so save that aghast look for something a little more unusual. Nope, sorry, that won't be the price either; the "Noble Pink" DS Lites will weigh in at an almost-average ¥16,800 ($144 US), and will see release July 20th overseas. Which means if nothing else we'll get them around or before the Wii drops in Q4, though hopefully not before the elusive, highly desireable black market black Lite.

[Via Joystiq]

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Password protect those bullets

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:25 e

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We've been loosely following the biometric firearm scene for a couple years now, but this might well be the first time we've heard anything about password protection for your bullets. It's only a patent application as of right yet, but inventor Herbert Meyerle dreams of a day when guns have a system for firing rounds by means of a burst of electromagnetic energy, which could only be activated if a password entered into the handgun matches a password embedded in the cartridge of bullets. If that sounds a little roundabout, that's because it probably is; why fiddle with passwords -- which, once activated, wouldn't prevent your gun from being used against you before the password times out -- when biometric firearm verification makes so much more sense? As soon as you're not holding that gun, it just won't work. Or, you know, you can always hit up the swords to plowshares thing, whatever mode of gun safety does it for ya.

[Via New Scientist]

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Boy Genius strikes at Engadget Mobile: Canary (KRZR), BlackBerry Stealth, StarTrek, Hermes, etc. coming to US

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 13:04 e

Filed under: Cellphones

It was a long day for the Boy Genius, but dude hooked Engadget Mobile up with a veritable cornucopia of launch plans for Cingular, including releases for the Motorola KRZR (aka Canary), V3i, HTC Hermes and StarTrek, the new BlackBerry Stealth, the Treo Nitro and Treo Lennon, HP iPAQ hw6920/25, and Nokia E62. Go check 'em out over at Engadget Mobile, you won't be sorry.

Treo Nitro and Treo Lennon coming to Cingular in October
The Boy Genius Report: BlackBerry Stealth
The Boy Genius Report: Canary is KRZR, getting launched September
The Boy Genius Report: Cingular snags Motorola V3i, Sony Ericsson w810
The Boy Genius Report: HTC Hermes & StarTrek, and iPAQ hw6920 coming to US
Nokia E62 to drop for $599/$399 in September/October

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Survey says: 20% of MacBooks are discolored

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:27 e

Filed under: Laptops

Either TUAW readers have especially sweaty, acidic, bacteria-ridden palms, or they're being hit hard by the MacBook discoloration issue so many have dreaded might strike their own smooth, plastic Apple laptops. Granted, you can't really take a poll with 1,556 votes to mean anything about a problem of this nature -- especially with so many haters and fanboys out there just waiting to bust out a script and tilt the scales -- but there's one company that knows just how many MacBooks have been seeing this issue, and until that one company issues a recall it's unlikely we're going to know just how severe this problem really is.

P.S. -If you're having MacBook discoloration, don't be shy about sounding off in our comments. We're here for you, people, let it all out.

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Akimbo still in the game with a new RCA box and MovieLink content

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 11:25 e

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Akimbo, as we all know, made their debut as a set-top box maker, entering the market with lukewarm reviews (at best), and a slew derisive criticism about set-top box saturation, and the need for Akimbo pushing their IPTV content platform onto HTPCs (much of which probably came from this here camp). Which, of course, they did -- unlike TiVo, which should have ported their platform to PCs long, long ago -- as Akimbo says this was always a part of their master plan. Apparently their early STB was just a way to get their platform in the market, but besides their integration with AT&T's forthcoming HomeZone service they've also got a new RCA box on the way, slated to feature an 80GB drive, Ethernet, S-Video, composite, component, digital audio out, and USB for a WiFi adapter. No, it won't have high definition support (yet), but it will indeed be able to suck down MovieLink content if you don't feel like waiting around for the mysterious Netflix box and/or download service to appear one of these years (or just snagging Vongo for your Windows PC today). When the RCA box drops this fall you'll apparently be able to get your Akimbo on, yet again, for between $200 and $300.

[Via Zatz Not Funny]

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Adaptix new SX-300 and SX-500 Mobile WiMax base stations

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 10:13 e

Filed under: Wireless

They may be jumping the gun, oh, just a little, but Adaptix is launching two new Mobile WiMax base stations, the SX-500 and SX-300, intended for mobile and vehicular uses, respectively. But doing IEEE 802.16e-2005 compliant OFDMA WiMax isn't just all this thing does; these devices will be imminently updatable and upgradeable as they're equipped with software defined radios. For example, already plans are in place to shoehorn in MIMO capabilities and 802.22 Wireless Regional Area data networks over TV bands into these units; in theory they could even be hacked to be WiFi APs or WiMax Bluetooth DUN modems -- but we'll not get ahead of ourselves here. No, as always we'll patiently wait for Adaptix get these in the hands of the users before we start letting our imaginations run away with us in wireless flights of fancy.

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D-Link launches 3G Securicam DCS-2120 wireless internet camera

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 09:12 e

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Wireless

D-Link's got a new weapon for anyone looking to keep an eye on burglars and other unwanted trespassers on their premises, the Securicam DCS-2120, a wireless security camera with 3G mobile video support. So now you'll be able to obsessively peep what's going on at your home or business from just about anywhere (with 3G service, that is) via your 3G-equipped phone or PDA. And if that's not enough for ya, the camera also has its own CPU and web server, which'll throw up a live feed that you can access from any web browser, as well as built-in 802.11g for additional networking options, including using multiple cameras. The specs for the camera itself are otherwise pretty standard, with a 640 x 480 resolution capturing video at "up to" 30 frames per second. D-Link's press release says the camera will launch in the U.K. sometime in July for £179.97, but it looks like it's already on sale over here for about $300 US.

[Via Tech Digest]

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eMachines releases five desktops for cash-strapped students

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 08:01 e

Filed under: Desktops

Even though summer has only barely begun, Gateway's eMachines is already looking ahead to the upcoming school year, having just announced five new Vista-ready desktops for the student on a budget. Starting at the "top of the line," we have the T6536 (pictured, with optional monitor) and T6534, which both feature Athlon 64 processors from AMD (3800+ and 3700+, respectively), nVidia GeForce 6100 graphics, and 250GB of storage, but the extra $90 you're spending on the $540 T6536 doubles the RAM from 512MB to 1GB and bumps the OS up to Windows XP Media Center Edition. Next in line is the T5046, which will set you back the same $450 as the T6534 but changes up the specs with a hyper-threaded Pentium 4 processor, Radeon Xpress 200 graphics from ATI, 512MB of RAM, a 200GB HDD, and the same dual-layer DVD burner found in both members of the 6000-series. Finally, the super-budget-conscious consumer has the option of either the $350 T3506 or $380 T3508, with the former machine offering a Celeron D352 CPU, Radeon X300-based graphics, 512MB of RAM, 120GB HDD, and a CD-RW/DVD combo drive, while the latter rig steps it up to a Celeron D356, Radeon Xpress 200 chip, 160GB hard drive, and that good old multi-format DVD burner. All of the new machines are available immediately, which gives you plenty of time to load up the software you'll need for surviving next year's vigorous academic schedule -- namely tunes, vids, and games.

Read- T6536
Read- T6534
Read- T5046
Read- T3508
Read- T3506
[All models via Yahoo]

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Nakamichi's stylin' Lumos portable DVD player

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 07:10 e

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio, Portable Video

If you've been looking for a portable DVD player that's a little more stylish than the usual fare, you may want to head down to your local Nakimichi distributor to check out the company's new 7-inch Lumos with its "jewel polished, sensuous black frame." We have to admit that this slot-loading model does look rather sensuous, and is all the more appealing when you find out that it supports both DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW discs, MP3 and photo CDs, and even images and movies straight from your digital camera, thanks to the built-in SD slot. Your $512 also gets you NTSC/PAL support, a pair of speakers, digital audio output, leather strap and carrying case, and what looks like a rather poorly designed remote -- hey, you can't have it all.

[Via Popgadget]

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