Mar/100
The internet earns a nomination for 2010 Nobel Prize
Isn’t Italy a place of contrast? After the country’s judiciary slammed Google for failing to keep a tight enough leash on user-uploaded content, we’re now hearing that its local version of Wired magazine is putting forward the internet as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its contributions to “helping advance dialogue, debate and consensus.” Right then. Just in case you think this is all a bit silly — and you should — we’re also hearing Nicholas Negroponte and 2003 Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi are both in support of the idea, which has been described as “a Nobel for each and every one of us” by Internet for Peace, an organization set up specifically to promote the web’s candidacy. That’s a pretty succinct way of putting it, but it also shows what’s wrong with the idea: nothing devalues a prize’s worth and meaning quite like handing it out to everyone. Just imagine icanhascheezburger.com slapping a legitimate Nobel laureate badge up on its homepage and you’ll know what we mean.
The internet earns a nomination for 2010 Nobel Prize originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
HTC Touch Pro 2 gets a new lease of Android life, loves it (video)
Android for Windows phones — simple concept, simple enough installation, but awesome results. The good people behind the XDAndroid project have been working hard to allow you to get your Google juices flowing nice and freely on your WinMo device and the latest build looks to have all but completed the task. Demonstrated on a Touch Pro 2 — a phone that recently got itself Ubuntu-ized — the Android installation experiences no difficulty in making calls, sending SMS or email missives, or browsing the web. There are still limitations, mind you, with GPS, Bluetooth and “other key functions” not yet available, but for the most part you’re looking at the full Android experience on devices that weren’t initially meant for it. Check it out on video after the break or hit the source link for detailed instructions on how to load this up on your own phone.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Continue reading HTC Touch Pro 2 gets a new lease of Android life, loves it (video)
HTC Touch Pro 2 gets a new lease of Android life, loves it (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
HTML5 vs. Flash comparison finds a few surprises, settles few debates
Think we’d all be better off if HTML5 could somehow instantly replace Flash overnight? Not necessarily, according to a set of comparisons from Jan Ozer of the Streaming Learning Center website, which found that while HTML5 did come out ahead in many respects, it wasn’t exactly a clear winner. The tests weren’t completely scientific, but they did find that HTML5 clearly performed better than Flash 10 or 10.1 in Safari on a Mac, although the differences were less clear cut in Google Chrome or Firefox. On the other hand, Flash more than held its own on Windows, and Flash Player 10.1 was actually 58% more efficient than HTML5 in Google Chrome on the Windows system tested. As you may have deduced, one of the big factors accounting for that discrepancy is that Flash is able to take advantage of GPU hardware acceleration in Windows, while Adobe is effectively cut out of the loop on Mac — something it has complained about quite publicly. According to Ozer, the differences between HTML5 and Flash playback on a Mac could be virtually eliminated if Flash could make use of GPU acceleration. Hit up the link below for all the numbers.
HTML5 vs. Flash comparison finds a few surprises, settles few debates originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Motorola partners with Microsoft, will use Bing search and maps on Chinese Android phones
Uh, whoa. When we heard Google’s threatened pullout of China had prompted Motorola to seek out an alternative search provider for its China-bound handsets, we can’t say we were expecting a partnership with Microsoft to result. But here we are, staring at a press release announcing the Bing search and Maps will be the default on Moto’s Chinese Android phones starting in Q1 — and the partnership is described as “global,” so there’s a chance it could spread. That’s just one more slap in Google’s face from Moto, following the release of the Yahoo-powered AT&T Backflip — and another step away from the tight relationship that produced the Droid. And does this mean Motorola might yet build a Windows Phone 7 Series device, despite a very public commitment to Android? We’d say Eric and Sanjay have some unresolved differences to work through.
Motorola partners with Microsoft, will use Bing search and maps on Chinese Android phones originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Motorola i1 gets clearer: 5 megapixel cam, Opera Mini default browser?
We’ve been slipped some additional information on Motorola’s imminent Android-powered i1 for iDEN networks today — actually, one correction and one interesting note. First, the correction: we’re now being told (by the same tipster as before) that it’s actually got a 5 megapixel camera on board, a nice upgrade from the 3 we’d previously been told to expect. More interestingly, though, we’re also hearing that Opera Mini has been tapped as the i1’s default browser — a move that Moto is more than welcome to make since this is a Blur-powered, non-”Google Experience” device. It’s also a possible admission that third-party Android browsers are currently outperforming Google’s own, something Microsoft has long dealt with on Windows Mobile as companies like HTC ultimately ended up bundling Opera Mobile with virtually every model they sold. So, Sprint Direct Connect and Boost Mobile customers, you getting excited about this thing or what?
Motorola i1 gets clearer: 5 megapixel cam, Opera Mini default browser? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
JooJoo revamps interface ahead of launch, adds local video playback — and changes color
The JooJoo tablet’s launch date might have been pushed back a month while Fusion Garage sorts out issues with the capacitive touchscreen, but it looks like the extra time has given the company a chance to tweak the interface and add in some features. Obviously the most noticable change is the revised homescreen, which has gone from line art on a garish solid color background to a nicely rendered icon grid over a high-res customizable wallpaper, but Fusion Garage has also ditched the confusing pinch-to-go-back gesture and replaced it a vertical swipe that brings down a status bar containing the home button, status indicators, browser navigation controls, and a combination address bar / search field. Scroll behavior has been revised as well, with two separate behaviors: a two-finger scroll that works like a scroll wheel, and a single finger “pan” that works like a mouse arrow. That’s so you can move around sites like Google Maps, which have different interface elements mapped to each control — CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan pointed out to us that devices like the iPhone avoid the issue entirely by using dedicated apps, but Fusion Garage wants to deliver the “full web experience.” It’s an interesting solution and a clever spin on things, but we’re waiting to try it out for real before we pass any judgment.
What else? The text-entry situation has been improved: there’s now both a smaller keyboard designed for one-handed operation that can be moved around the screen so it doesn’t obscure content, and a full-screen multitouch keyboard that does chording so it recognizes more than one key at a time. There’s no auto-correction or prediction, though. Flash is now fully working, and YouTube videos can either be played back using Flash or the custom H.264 HD breakout player we’ve already seen; that player supports a range of codecs can also be used for videos stored on a USB thumb drive. And finally, and perhaps most oddly, the JooJoo has changed colors. Instead of black, the back casing is now a “champagne” color, a picture of which you can see below — Chandra told us that unhappy preorder customers can just have their $499 refunded if they desperately wanted black instead. All we desperately want to do is get a review unit and tell you what the JooJoo is actually like to use — if all of these promises hold up, it could be very intriguing indeed.
JooJoo revamps interface ahead of launch, adds local video playback — and changes color originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Google Maps adds bicycle directions, turns out its nothing like ‘Quicksilver’
Continue reading Google Maps adds bicycle directions, turns out its nothing like ‘Quicksilver’
Google Maps adds bicycle directions, turns out its nothing like ‘Quicksilver’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Google Apps Marketplace opens for business, for business
Google’s certainly made some enterprise inroads with Google Apps, and now it’s open the road for other cloud-based service providers to build on that success: it’s launching Google Apps Marketplace to sell third-party web apps that integrate with the Apps suite. The apps are sold as a subscription, with both monthly and annual pricing, and the billing is all handled by Google. Since it’s all targeted at the enterprise, the apps themselves are pretty dry — we’re talking notables like Intuit Online Payroll, eFax, and TripIt — but it’s pretty easy to see how Google could build a similar consumer-level marketplace into Gmail and Google Calendar sometime in the future. And then? Skynet. Video after the break.
Continue reading Google Apps Marketplace opens for business, for business
Google Apps Marketplace opens for business, for business originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
The iPad introduction video, as captioned by Google
Hey remember that feel-good iPad introduction video with the Ben Folds cover of “Just Like Heaven” Apple posted on launch day? Yeah, well you’re going to remember the hell out of it once you watch it with Google’s auto-transcription enabled on YouTube. Trust us, you owe yourself these few moments of absurdity.
[Thanks, Jeff]
The iPad introduction video, as captioned by Google originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Google and Dish Network testing TV search on Android-based set-top boxes
We’ve definitely heard of a few different Android-based satellite and cable boxes in the past year, but it looks like Google’s exploring a real move into living room: the Wall Street Journal reports that El Goog and Dish Network are testing a TV search service on a new box that runs on “elements” of Android. (We’re taking that to mean it’s a stripped-down version of the OS tailored for a set-top, not some totally crazy remix.) The box features a QWERTY remote, and users can search both Dish content and other services like YouTube, which sounds like the same riff TiVo’s trying to pull off with the Premiere. Unfortunately, none of this seems destined to hit consumers anytime soon — the WSJ also says the trial “is limited to a very small number of Google employees and their families and could be discontinued at any time.” Okay, but can we at least get some hands-on pictures first?
[Thanks, Jordan]
Google and Dish Network testing TV search on Android-based set-top boxes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
PowerHouse eMonitor lets you manage power use down to the circuit
Continue reading PowerHouse eMonitor lets you manage power use down to the circuit
PowerHouse eMonitor lets you manage power use down to the circuit originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Motorola Backflip doesn’t allow non-Market apps, proves AT&T doesn’t get Android
Let’s step into the time warp, shall we? Specifically, we’d like to go back to our interview of AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega at MWC last year when we asked him about the carrier’s support for Android (or lack thereof):
Chris: Okay, and expanding on that a little bit, I heard you speak at CTIA last year and you mentioned that… you mentioned basically the same comments about Android at that time. You said that you thought that it was promising, you liked what you saw, but that was at a time when there were a lot of questions about why AT&T wasn’t in the OHA. I’m wondering if your thoughts, your opinions have changed since then. Has AT&T’s direction with Android changed at all?Ralph: No, actually, I think that they have been somewhat validated in that… we like the Android as an operating system on its own, but we want to make sure that we have, and customers have the option, to put applications on that device that are not just Google applications, so when the G1 came out and T-Mobile launched it, it’s primarily a Google phone. And we want to give customers the choice of other applications on that device, not just the same Google applications.
Chris: So you’re basically waiting for Android to be de-branded, so to speak?
Ralph: Well, to be open. (Laughter.) Right? I mean, the whole idea behind Android is that it’s gonna be an open OS, and so I don’t wanna roll an open OS to market that has primarily Google apps on it, and I think that’s gonna happen. I mean, I see a lot of activity, I think it’s got a good future, and I think it makes a lot of sense that the OS is open-source, separate from Google apps that are also very good.
A year later, enter the Motorola Backflip — AT&T’s very first Android device. Does it hold true to de la Vega’s principles? Well, it depends on whose glasses you read the statements through. Yes, true, it definitely doesn’t have “primarily Google apps on it” thanks to the carrier’s questionable decision to remove Google search and replace it with Yahoo — but as for giving “customers the choice of other applications,” that’s another matter altogether. It seems that Backflips are being shipped without the ability to turn on non-Market installations, meaning that AT&T has effectively locked you into getting all of your content through the walled garden. Add in the Yahoo debacle and the egregious amount of unremovable crapware they’ve left in ROM, and we start to wonder: why did AT&T bother partnering up with Android if they weren’t going to take it seriously? Certainly doesn’t bode well for the Mini 3 and the rest of the pack, now, does it?
Motorola Backflip doesn’t allow non-Market apps, proves AT&T doesn’t get Android originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
A lava lamp and a Nexus One tested under 3 Gs of force (video)
Neil Fraser, a true pioneer of science, wasn’t satisfied with just wondering whether a lava lamp will work on Jupiter. He opted instead to build a freaking centrifuge in the middle of his living room, strap an innocent lava lamp and a Nexus One to one end with counterbalancing weights on the other, and spin that monster up to find out for himself. His instrument was able to generate 3 Gs of lateral force (despite the Nexus One’s G-Force reporting 2.0 Gs due to a bug, now reported to Google), which is comfortably above the 2.5 G gravitational pull that one might experience on the solar system’s biggest planet. So, did the goo keep its mojo under pressure? Did the Nexus One survive the ordeal intact? Click past the break to find out.
Continue reading A lava lamp and a Nexus One tested under 3 Gs of force (video)
A lava lamp and a Nexus One tested under 3 Gs of force (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Google Chrome OS ‘business version’ coming in 2011
[Thanks, Amrita]
Google Chrome OS ‘business version’ coming in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/1025
iPhone 3GS v Nexus One v Palm Pre Plus Part 2
Dogfight! Apple vs Google vs Palm! AT&T vs T-Mobile vs Verizon! Noah vs Noah vs … wait, what? Dogfight! iphone, ipad, and ipod: www.todaysiphone.com Win Free Phones www.phonedog.com More Videos: www.phonedog.com
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Mar/100
Entelligence: Will Android fragmentation destroy the platform?
My friend and colleague Harry McCracken recently bought a brand new Droid from Motorola. He says it’s a “loaf of day old bread.” He’s right. The Droid and Android 2.0 were introduced with much fanfare in December, but have already been eclipsed by Android 2.1 running on Google’s Nexus One, and there are some serious ramifications for being behind. For example, Google recently touted the latest mobile version of Google Earth, which is a cool app that you won’t be able to use unless you’re running 2.1. Sure, Google says “Google Earth will be available in Android Market on most devices that have Android 2.1 or later versions,” but that’s most, not every. And what does Google mean when it says “as devices like the Droid get updated…” to 2.1? When will they get updated? Is it any wonder that some Android users are starting to get pangs of buyers remorse?
When Android was announced, I wrote that if “Google can deliver, the impact could be huge,” but I caveated a major issue: Google would need to prevent the market from fragmenting and allow it to succeed where other mobile and desktop Linux implementations had failed. Linux fragmentation remains one of the many reasons the open-source OS has failed to capture a meaningful share of the PC desktop market, and Android is rapidly following a similar path by fragmenting into different versions with different core feature sets, different users experiences and run different applications.
Continue reading Entelligence: Will Android fragmentation destroy the platform?
Entelligence: Will Android fragmentation destroy the platform? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Engadget Podcast 186 – 03.05.2010
RUSH to download the latest episode of the Engadget Podcast – before the lawyers beat you to it!
Hosts: Josh Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Tom Sawyer
Hear the podcast
00:02:21 – Apple sues HTC for infringing 20 iPhone patents
00:03:30 – Apple vs HTC: a patent breakdown
00:26:54 – Apple specifically going after Android in HTC lawsuit
00:27:56 – Google responds to Apple’s HTC lawsuit: ‘We stand behind our Android operating system’
00:31:12 – TiVo Premiere and Premiere XL usher in a brand new interface, optional QWERTY remote
00:31:25 - Live from TiVo’s ‘one box’ press event
00:33:00 -TiVo Premiere hands-on (update: video!)
00:42:07 – Engadget is live from CeBIT 2010!
00:42:44 – NVIDIA Ion 2 now official; Acer, ASUS and Lenovo at the ready
00:45:10 – NVIDIA’s Optimus technology shows its graphics switching adroitness on video
00:47:30 – Acer Aspire One 532G with ION 2 priced at an aggressive 379 euros
00:50:55 – Sony: Don’t turn on your PS3 until PSN bug is fixed
00:55:45 – Project Pink QWERTY slider ‘Pure’ found in the wild, headed for Verizon?
01:01:53 – Exclusive: First Windows Phone 7 Series partner device unveiled (with video!)
01:05:10 – HTC HD2 and Windows Phone 7 Series: Just tell us no, Microsoft
01:06:30 – Microsoft sending mixed signals on Windows Phone 7 Series upgrades, HTC HD2 still in limbo
01:10:10 – Palm webOS 1.4 update hits Verizon’s Pre Plus and Pixi Plus
01:19:06 – BlackBerry slider photos leak out!
01:20:02 – More BlackBerry slider pics appear — is this the next Bold?
01:26:25 – The Engadget app for BlackBerry gets updated to 1.0.1
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Filed under: Podcasts
Engadget Podcast 186 – 03.05.2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Steve Ballmer emphasizes importance of the cloud, Google pretty much does likewise
Microsoft has had its run-ins with the cloud before, but if CEO Steve Ballmer is being serious (and we’re guessing he is), the company is about to get even more connected. Speaking with computer science students this week at the University of Washington, Ballmer was quoted as saying that “a year from now… 90 percent [of Microsoft employees would be working in the cloud].” He went on to say that the cloud base “is the bet, if you will, for our company,” and he noted that it’ll “create opportunities for all the folks in [the] room to do important research and build important projects.” It’s not like any of this is an epiphany, though; we’ve already seen a shift to Google Documents given the ability to access it from any web-connected computer, and with the proliferation of broadband on the up and up, it’s only a matter of time before it’s more convenient to open a web app than to wait for your taskbar to stop bouncing. In related news, Google Europe boss John Herlihy has essentially mirrored those thoughts, calling the desktop an item that will be “irrelevant” in three years. Why? Largely because most everything you’ll need a tower for will be available via a mobile or the web, but we all know that sect of hardcore gamers will keep the beige boxes rolling for at least another score.
Steve Ballmer emphasizes importance of the cloud, Google pretty much does likewise originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Sexist computers: male voices are apparently harder to recognize than female ones
Researchers up at the University of Edinburgh have determined that the male voice is harder for voice recognition software to pick up and understand than its female counterpart. This conclusion was reached after telephone conversation recordings were run through a battery of tests, which revealed that men seem to say “umm” and “err” more often, while also identifying that the greatest difficulties arise with words that sound similar and can arise in the same context, such as “him” and “them.” Equally troubling is the first word in a sentence, as it comes without context and therefore doesn’t benefit from any predictive assistance. Done in partnership with Stanford, the study was aimed at identifying and overcoming the major hurdles to producing usable and reliable voice recognition — something Google’s universal voice translator phone is also aiming to achieve. Let’s hope somebody figures out how to get around all our hemming and hawing, eh?
Sexist computers: male voices are apparently harder to recognize than female ones originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
AT&T USBConnect Turbo and Velocity are carrier’s first LG and GPS modems, respectively
Location-based services have finally melted our brains to the point where we’re completely useless without immediate and constant access to Google Maps or a reasonable facsimile — we couldn’t fold a paper map if we tried, and even if we could, we’d spend an hour looking for the pulsing blue dot. That’s why we’re so delighted to hear that AT&T has finally outed its very first GPS-enabled USB modem, the USBConnect Velocity from Option, that includes a so-called Option GPS Control Panel for injecting your whereabouts into popular services like Yahoo and Bing (Google, curiously, isn’t mentioned). The other newbie to the lineup is the USBConnect Turbo — AT&T’s very first modem from LG — with an “ergonomic design” and versatile connector for even the most awkward ports (MacBook, we’re looking straight at you). Both devices will be available on the 7th of the month; the Turbo will be free on contract after rebate while the Velocity comes in at $29.99.
AT&T USBConnect Turbo and Velocity are carrier’s first LG and GPS modems, respectively originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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