Mar/100
Cellphone inventor Marty Cooper uses a Droid…. and a Jitterbug
Sure, you read reviews and take recommendations from friends before you buy a new cellphone, but have you ever stopped to consider what the inventor of the cellphone uses on a daily basis? C-SPAN has, and recently took the opportunity to ask the man himself, Marty Cooper, that very question during a wide-ranging interview. While Cooper said that he has used an iPhone previously, he recently passed it on to his grandson in favor of a Motorola Droid, which he says he chose because he wanted to get more experience with Android. But that’s not all, Cooper also revealed that he carries a Jitterbug as well for when he just wants to make phone calls. Surprising for a pioneer of mobile technology? Not exactly, as Cooper actually co-founded Jitterbug with his wife, who he credits with inventing the phone. Head on past the break to watch the complete interview.
Continue reading Cellphone inventor Marty Cooper uses a Droid…. and a Jitterbug
Cellphone inventor Marty Cooper uses a Droid…. and a Jitterbug originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Darkworks SDK transforms 2D games into 3D games, no 3D TV required
Well, wouldn’t you know it? 3D seems to be the topic of conversation here at GDC , and Paris-based Darkworks is making a splash by announcing the availability of its TriOviz for Games SDK. In short, this magical software concoction is a post-process effect that allows standard 2D games to be transformed into 3D masterpieces… and you don’t even need to buy a 3D television. We were briefed on the tech here at the show, and we’re told that the magic happens in the software and the glasses, and unlike existing 3D technologies, other users around the house will still be able to watch you play in 2D without all those blurred edges. In other words, existing titles (for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC; sorry Wii owners!) can have a 3D experience added in, and we’re guessing that a select few AAA games will be seeing a DLC pack in the near future for those who care to re-play their favorites in the third dimension. We’ll be doing our best to swing by and catch a demo later today, but for now, just know that your life will never be the same once these 3D-ified games start shipping in the Spring.
Darkworks SDK transforms 2D games into 3D games, no 3D TV required originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
JooJoo hits the FCC, reveals NVIDIA Ion, 3G card
Well well. We’d always suspected that the JooJoo tablet was hiding something extra to run HD video and Flash, and it’s just hit the FCC with full documentation and a teardown confirming that there’s an NVIDIA Ion GPU paired with an Atom N270 packed inside. We’re also seeing a 3G card in there, although it’s unclear whether it’ll be active or installed at launch — we’ve been told the 3G version won’t be ready until sometime later this year, but anything can change. There’s also some pictures showing it running Windows 7, but we’re assuming that’s just for testing purposes — although we’d imagine it wouldn’t be too hard to hack on there. But back to Ion for a second: our experience with first-gen Ion netbooks has been one of decreased performance and drastically reduced battery life, so we’re very curious to see how the JooJoo holds up compared to modern netbooks running Intel’s Pine Trail chips and NVIDIA’s Optimus-based Ion 2. We’ll see — it’s supposed to ship in just a few weeks. Two more pics after the break.
Continue reading JooJoo hits the FCC, reveals NVIDIA Ion, 3G card
JooJoo hits the FCC, reveals NVIDIA Ion, 3G card originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
PlayStation Move: everything you ever wanted to know
Sony dropped a lot of knowledge on us yesterday, at long last replacing rampant speculation with some cold hard facts — and even a name! — for its new PlayStation motion controller. The PlayStation Move is being described as a “platform” and a “virtual console launch” by folks at Sony, and we think they mean it, so prepare for a motion-controlled ad war later this year, as Microsoft and Sony set themselves up for a real three-way fight with Nintendo for your physical living room activity of the gaming variety. While some of the high-level Wii-like functionalities might be obvious, follow us after the break as we walk through the nitty gritty of everything we know so far about Move.
Gallery: PlayStation Move press photos
Continue reading PlayStation Move: everything you ever wanted to know
PlayStation Move: everything you ever wanted to know originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
DARPA looking to develop iPhone and Android apps, App Store
[Thanks, Sriram]
DARPA looking to develop iPhone and Android apps, App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
HTC Incredible out in the wild once more, Verizon color scheme alive and well
Android Forums is alight today with fresh HTC Incredible chatter — a phone every Android fan on Verizon is desperately waiting for — and we’ve managed to glean a few more pictures and possible specs out of the mess. It looks like we can expect a half gig of RAM with about 320MB available (roughly the same as what you find on the Nexus One) and an 8 megapixel cam, but interestingly, the phone’s Snapdragon core is apparently underclocked to 768MHz, almost certainly a battery-saving measure on HTC’s part; fortunately, the Sense-powered Android 2.1 firmware is still said to be “blazing fast.” It measures 117.5 x 58.5 x 11.9mm — just a hair narrower, shorter, and thicker than its Nexus One doppelganger, small enough of a difference so that we think it’ll be virtually indistinguishable in person. As shots go, we’re seeing now that HTC has moved from the brightly-colored glossy shell to a soft-touch black one while keeping the strange contours; we think there’s at least a chance that this is final ID, too, since the Verizon logo is silkscreened at the bottom. Inside, the entire thing (including the battery itself) is a shockingly loud shade of red, mirroring an odd design trend first seen on the HD mini. We definitely dig it. If the stats over on the forum hold up, the Incredible’s on track for a launch in April or May, so it’s still a few weeks off — in the meanwhile, we encourage you to check out more of the new shots after the break.
[Thanks, Matt and EBBY]
Continue reading HTC Incredible out in the wild once more, Verizon color scheme alive and well
HTC Incredible out in the wild once more, Verizon color scheme alive and well originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Novothink rolls out Solar Surge iPhone / iPod touch charging case
Novothink rolls out Solar Surge iPhone / iPod touch charging case originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Barnes & Noble promises B&N eReader app for iPad near launch
Need a bit more evidence that the e-book download business is a whole lot different than the music download business? Then look no further than Barnes & Noble, which has just announced that it plans to make its B&N eReader app available for the Apple iPad “around the time” of the device’s launch. Details are otherwise a bit light, but the app will be free, and is apparently “designed specifically” for the iPad, giving you access to all of the books, magazines and newspapers available in Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore. Could a Kindle app be far behind?
Barnes & Noble promises B&N eReader app for iPad near launch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Dolby issues Axon SDK to bring surround sound to online console / Mac gamers
Dolby’s Axon surround sound technology isn’t exactly new (it’s already used on a number of PC titles), but to date, it has yet to make a stand in the online console and Mac gaming sectors. All that changes today at GDC, with the aural company introducing an Axon software development kit that will make it possible for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and OS X titles to integrate the technology. According to the company, this here solution provides improved audio chain processing (noise suppression and echo suppression), surround sound voice chat over stereo headsets, 5.1 playback and support for any stereo headset. We’re told that the ports should be available for devs starting in April, though only time will tell how long it takes for your Xbox Live experience to go from haunting to all-encompassing.
Continue reading Dolby issues Axon SDK to bring surround sound to online console / Mac gamers
Dolby issues Axon SDK to bring surround sound to online console / Mac gamers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Sony’s ultra-compact concept camera gets slightly less mysterious
We didn’t exactly get the best look at Sony’s new ultra-compact concept camera at PMA last month, but the company is now thankfully starting to reveal a few more details about the “DSLR quality” camera. Still nothing in the way of specs or an actual working camera, of course, but Sony has provided a few screenshots of the camera’s menu system that at least provide a few tidbits of information. Most notably, it seems that the camera will employ a touchscreen interface, with most of the main controls handled by a menu on the side of the screen, and it looks like the camera will have a RAW + JPEG shooting mode, which should no doubt please more serious photographers. Hit up the link below for a few more screenshots.
[Thanks, Julien]
Sony’s ultra-compact concept camera gets slightly less mysterious originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
OpenGL 4.0 arrives, brings more opportunities for general purpose GPU action
What’s a Game Developers Conference without some sweet new tools for developers to sink their teeth into? Khronos Group, the association behind OpenGL, has today announced the fourth generation of its cross-platform API spec, which takes up the mantle of offering a viable competitor to Microsoft’s DirectX 11. The latest release includes two new shader stages for offloading geometry tessellation from the CPU to the GPU, as well as tighter integration with OpenCL to allow the graphics card to take up yet more duties off the typically overworked processor — both useful additions in light of NVIDIA’s newfound love affair with tessellation and supposed leaning toward general purpose GPU design in the Fermi chips coming this month. Lest you don’t care that much about desktop gaming, OpenGL ES (Embedded Systems, a mobile offshoot of OpenGL) is the graphics standard on “virtually every shipping smart phone,” meaning that whatever ripples start on the desktop front will be landing as waves on your next superphone. If that holds true, we can look forward to more involvement from our graphics chips beyond their usual 3D duties and into spheres we tend to care about — such as video acceleration. Now you care, don’t ya?
OpenGL 4.0 arrives, brings more opportunities for general purpose GPU action originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Huawei announces SmaKit S7 Android tablet
When we first spied Huawei’s SmaKit S7 Android tablet, we were at CeBit and it was… well, non-functioning. Now Huawei’s officially announced the tablet now, and we have to say that it looks just like every other Android tablet being hoisted upon the world these days, but it’s got some nice features that make it worth a second gander. The 7-incher boasts an 800 x 480 pixel resolution, 720p playback, 3G connectivity, plus a dock with HDMI out, two USB 2.0 ports, and two microSDHC slots. The tablet, which runs the 1.6 version of the OS, will supposedly be available this summer, though we don’t yet have any information about where it will be available or how much it will cost. We’ll let you know as soon as we do — but in the meantime, there’s a video demo after the break.
Continue reading Huawei announces SmaKit S7 Android tablet
Huawei announces SmaKit S7 Android tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
T-Mobile webConnect Rocket available March 14, already blowing minds in Philly
Continue reading T-Mobile webConnect Rocket available March 14, already blowing minds in Philly
T-Mobile webConnect Rocket available March 14, already blowing minds in Philly originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
$92 MD500 Android tablet from Hott actually looks pretty cool
At this point we really need another tablet like we need another hole in the head, but when this one could cost around $100 and still look quite good, well, it’s worth talking about. It’s the Hott MD500, an Android device with a 4.8-inch, 800 x 480 screen and plenty of OS customizations to make it rather more media-friendly, including the ability to “play every codec” according to the guy doing the demonstration. We’ll believe that when we see it, but it is shown playing a 720p clip from the cinematic masterpiece Tokyo Drift without too much trouble. The somewhat iPhone-esque design looks very nice and is much smaller than a comparable Archos 5. The price is $92 to distributors without any flash memory and, since you can get a 4GB microSD card for a few bucks these days (even a legit one), we wouldn’t be surprised if these sell for for $115 or $120. Whether they’ll ever hit retail in the US is, of course, another question. Video demonstration is embedded below if you want to hear the hype, just try not to lose your breakfast every time this is enthusiastically called an iPad killer.
Continue reading $92 MD500 Android tablet from Hott actually looks pretty cool
$92 MD500 Android tablet from Hott actually looks pretty cool originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Opera Mini 5 on Android mini review
Opera’s Mini 5 beta finally hit Android in the wee hours of this morning and, while writing about what it looks like is nice, we thought a little walk-through to demonstrate the impressive speed of the thing was worthwhile. So we have a short video for you below, with a comparison against the stock Android browser, plus some impressions of just how it is to use. So, click on through, won’t you?
Continue reading Opera Mini 5 on Android mini review
Opera Mini 5 on Android mini review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
TiVo returning to the UK thanks to partnership with Virgin Media
It looks like TiVo’s freshly minted Premiere hardware will soon be setting sail eastwards as The Daily Telegraph is reporting Virgin Media’s next generation set-top box will be built around it. Loyal readers of Engadget HD will already be aware that TiVo and Virgin hooked up last November and this latest news relates to the first hardware to be spawned from that relationship. According to TiVo CEO Tom Rogers, the Premiere will “heavily inspire the development work” going into Virgin’s next TV appendage, which may or may not mean that the cable company will simply rebadge the well-received new boxes. What’s assured though is much greater integration with online content, with search linking you out to Amazon, BBC’s iPlayer, YouTube or good old standard broadcast channels. The whole thing’s about unlimited choice, apparently, and should be showing up on the Queen’s isles by the end of this year. We can wait, but we’d rather we didn’t have to.
TiVo returning to the UK thanks to partnership with Virgin Media originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Stihl’s autumn calendar automatically rips through to tomorrow
Unless they’re incredibly quiet or potentially explosive, you won’t find us waxing poetic (or even prosaic) about leaf blowers. But if a company that produced leaf blowers made a motorized calendar that tore off its own pages? We’d tell you about that in a heartbeat — even if the wonderfully wasteful contraption turned out to be a viral ad by agency Euro RSCG rather than an actual household organizer, and even if its pages aren’t nearly as saucy as Stihl’s usual NSFW fare. Believe it or not, there’s no blade inside that brushed aluminum shell; the process works by ripping out the bookbinding thread along the calendar’s spine using a motorized reel. Join us in celebrating the wonder of pressed dead wood floating to earth all by its lonesome with a short video after the break.
Continue reading Stihl’s autumn calendar automatically rips through to tomorrow
Stihl’s autumn calendar automatically rips through to tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
NES harmonicas hit eBay, three lucky gamers cheer
Remember the HarmoNESica? A brief refresher, then: it’s what happens when you’ve got a copy of Super Tecmo Bowl, a Pocket Pal harmonica, and the desire to create a unique musical instrument. But if you don’t have any of the aforementioned ingredients and just want the end result, eBay’s got you covered as usual — three HarmoNESicas have been gathering bids at the online auction house this week. Whether your pleasure be Dick Tracy, Super Mario Bros. 3 or The Legend of Zelda, there’s a harmonica to match; and if (for some reason) you want to actually play one of the games, you’ll find the ROM guts tastefully included. But before you make your bid, remember: there’s more than one way to skin an NES cartridge.
NES harmonicas hit eBay, three lucky gamers cheer originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Nikon D90 torn down, rebuilt in pink (video)
Words… what good are words when you’re trying to describe the horrific visage of a growling, rugged, heavyweight camera coated in the frilly tutu of the color spectrum, magenta? We shan’t try to describe the peculiar mix of revolt, disgust and subtle desire that this whole thing incites in us, and will just point you after the break for the video. There’s plenty of good clean fun to be had while exploring the dismantled D90 (though there’s one instance of foul language when the modder gets an electric shock, understandable) and if you’re of a nervous disposition you can always skip the shockingly pink finale.
Continue reading Nikon D90 torn down, rebuilt in pink (video)
Nikon D90 torn down, rebuilt in pink (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
ASUS Cine5 is ‘world’s most compact’ five-channel speaker, doesn’t forget the blue LEDs
Seriously, who told manufacturers that we’re in love with garish LED status lights?ASUS has strapped a glowing orb of unnecessariness around the volume knob of the Cine5 — an otherwise perfectly acceptable and appreciably diminutive PC soundbar. With an array of speaker drivers integrated into that curvy body, ASUS claims the Cine5 produces realistic multidirectional surround sound, but does admit it’s mostly intended for smaller spaces such as study rooms. The announcement also includes a nod to FPS gamers, with claims that the improved positional audio on offer will benefit both gameplay immersion and accuracy when identifying a sound source, though we reckon the biggest boon will still be the elimination of the extra cables and speakers one usually needs to get one’s surround sound on. Price and availability have not yet been made public, but knowing ASUS both should be in the reasonable range of the market.
ASUS Cine5 is ‘world’s most compact’ five-channel speaker, doesn’t forget the blue LEDs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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