Friday, October 1, 2010

Michael Dell teases new 7-inch Android tablet, says Streak to land in Best Buy next month (update: pic)

Michael Dell teases new 7-inch Android tablet, says Streak to land in Best Buy next month (update: pic): "

Oh Michael, such a teaser you are. Word has it that the head honcho of Dell Inc. has just pulled out yet another Android tablet from his pocket, only this time it's a 7-inch whopper. Sadly, Mr. Dell left us high and dry with dates and specs (and the lack of photos from the event doesn't help, either), but we'll bet you that this is the long-rumored Looking Glass. On a more solid note, Dell also announced that the smaller Streak is heading to Best Buy next month. That's great, except some of us would rather see the tabletphone getting its share of Froyo sooner -- here's hoping that this bigger tablet won't disappoint us with an outdated OS.



Update: As it just so happens, Reuters snapped a pic of Mr. Dell himself holding the tablet on stage, and sure enough, it resembles that leaked Looking Glass even from quite a distance away.

Michael Dell teases new 7-inch Android tablet, says Streak to land in Best Buy next month (update: pic) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | sourceWall Street Journal, ABC | Email this | Comments"

Sony's PlayMemories app brings 3D photos to your PlayStation 3

Sony's PlayMemories app brings 3D photos to your PlayStation 3: "

This wasn't mentioned among the other 3D-related PS3 announcements Sony made during its Tokyo Game Show press conference last week, but it looks like the company has another little bonus in store for those that just can't get enough 3D. It's just announced a new PlayMemories application that will be available as a free download in 'late September,' and will let you view both 2D and 3D photos captured with a 3D-compatible camera (including Sony's NEX-5/NEX-3, WX5 and TX9). No peek at the app itself just yet, unfortunately, but we're guessing it'll be available any day now -- it is technically late September, after all.

Continue reading Sony's PlayMemories app brings 3D photos to your PlayStation 3

Sony's PlayMemories app brings 3D photos to your PlayStation 3 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 05:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone Awareness! app selectively filters outside noises into your headphones, saves hipster lives

iPhone Awareness! app selectively filters outside noises into your headphones, saves hipster lives: "

Apps are funny things. They tend to provide narrow utility -- focusing intensely on one specific thing -- but once you get used to them, you wonder how you lived without them. Take this Awareness! app, for example: it gauges environmental noise levels, sets up a threshold, and then pipes in anything louder than that into your skull alongside your music. Reasons why you'd want that to happen include oncoming SUVs, mothers screaming because their babies are in peril (from oncoming SUVs), or something as benign as your teacher yelling at you for not paying attention in class. There's a nice set of options too, such as manually adjusting how loud a sound must be to be allowed entry into your cranium, as well as pausing of the app or of your music. Awareness! is available for five bucks on the iPhone and iPod touch, and will soon jump on to the iPad, Android, Symbian, and even the Mac and PC.

Continue reading iPhone Awareness! app selectively filters outside noises into your headphones, saves hipster lives

iPhone Awareness! app selectively filters outside noises into your headphones, saves hipster lives originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 04:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gmail for Android updated, becomes Market app

Gmail for Android updated, becomes Market app: "

We've always said the native Gmail app is one of the best parts of Android, and it just got even better: it now supports Priority Inbox, has a 'show quoted text' button, and features a floating message actions toolbar like the browser-based mobile Gmail webapp. The bigger news, though, is that Google's releasing Gmail directly to Android Market, where it'll be a separate download that can be revved with new features independently of Android itself. That's a pretty great move, as anyone still waiting for a carrier-approved Froyo build can attest, but there's irony afoot: the new Gmail won't run on anything less than 2.2. Wah-wah.

Gmail for Android updated, becomes Market app originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | sourceGoogle | Email this | Comments"

Facebook, Skype Getting Really Friendly

Facebook, Skype Getting Really Friendly: "cgriffin21 writes 'Facebook and Skype are reportedly in talks over a deal that would integrate Skype calling capabilities into Facebook user accounts. Such an agreement would give both Skype and Facebook not only a leg up on rival VoIP and social networking services from the likes of Google, but also the combined force of two Internet-based services beloved by consumers. The talks, which were reported by All Things Digital on Wednesday, stem from Facebook's goal of merging IP communications and social networking communities more closely together. Facebook in recent weeks had also been rumored to be developing a mobile device of its own.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



"

QPC's Articulated Naturality Web looks to one up augmented reality

QPC's Articulated Naturality Web looks to one up augmented reality: "

We've already heard QderoPateo Communications (or QPC) talk up its notion of 'articulated naturality' on smartphones, but it looks like the company has really gone all out for the World Economic Forum's recent Summer Davos Conference. That's where the company laid out its ambitious vision for an 'Articulated Naturality Web,' which promises to take the concept of augmented reality to a whole new level. Described as a 'complete renaissance in the way we approach technology,' the system would let you check hotel room availability simply by looking at the outside of the hotel, try out different furniture in an empty office space, look at items from a museum before you go inside, and get a weather forecast just by looking at the sky, to name just a few possibilities. Ambitious to be sure, but is it actually attainable in the near future? We certainly hope so. Head on past the break for the video.



[Thanks, Marius]

Continue reading QPC's Articulated Naturality Web looks to one up augmented reality

QPC's Articulated Naturality Web looks to one up augmented reality originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | sourceVimeo | Email this | Comments"

LaCie pushes serious pixels on 24-inch 324i professional IPS display

LaCie pushes serious pixels on 24-inch 324i professional IPS display: "

Need a few new pixels to display your shiny new digital images on? LaCie's got you covered, with its new 324i offering a premium feature set to accompany a premium price. Aimed specifically at creative pros with the pockets to appreciate a 10-bit P-IPS panel, exceedingly wide color gamuts (102 percent NTSC; 98 percent Adobe RGB), a slew of input connectors (DVI-D, HDMI, component and DisplayPort), 178-degree viewing angles and an anti-glare coating. The 24-inch panel boasts a 1920 x 1200 resolution, and the multifunction stand enables users to pivot the display for horizontal or vertical viewing. We gawked at it for a few minutes here at Photokina, and while the design is thoroughly corporate, the picture quality is indeed stunning. Other specs include a 1000:1 contrast ratio, a trio of USB 2.0 ports and an integrated cable manager; she's on sale today for a stiff $1,249.99, but man, we'd almost pay it for that anti-glare action.

Continue reading LaCie pushes serious pixels on 24-inch 324i professional IPS display

LaCie pushes serious pixels on 24-inch 324i professional IPS display originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Keepin' it real fake: white MacBook with dual batteries, other things you never knew you needed

Keepin' it real fake: white MacBook with dual batteries, other things you never knew you needed: "


Here at KIRF headquarters, we've seen our share of Apple product fakery. We remain, however, impressed at companies' abilities to knock off laptops in any decent manner. This white MacBook-looking fellow, made by LeThink, boasts a feature or two you'll probably never see on an actual Cupertino-born laptop, such as the option of two batteries. This bad boy boasts a tray loading DVD player, an NVIDIA Ion 2 graphics processor, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom D510 CPU, GMA 3150 graphics, 1GB of RAM built-in (with support for up to 2GB), an up to 320GB hard drive, two USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI outputs, a LAN port, and an SD slot. They're available in China for starting prices of around 2,999 yuan -- that's about $440. Another shot is below.

Continue reading Keepin' it real fake: white MacBook with dual batteries, other things you never knew you needed

Keepin' it real fake: white MacBook with dual batteries, other things you never knew you needed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 08:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | sourceMicGadget | Email this | Comments"

Seagate issues industry's first 1.5TB external 2.5-inch HDD: FreeAgent GoFlex USB 3.0

Seagate issues industry's first 1.5TB external 2.5-inch HDD: FreeAgent GoFlex USB 3.0: "

Look out, world -- Seagate's got a new portable hard drive comin' your way, and it's as capacious as ever. If you'll recall, Western Digital broke the 1TB mark in the diminutive 2.5-inch drive sector back in July of last year, and now we're seeing a 50 percent boost with the 1.5TB FreeAgent GoFlex ultra-portable drive. The company's claims that this is a first of its kind, and we certainly aren't in the mood to argue. It's designed to play nice with both Macs and PCs (it's formatted as NTFS), and better still, it's all set up to take advantage of that shiny new USB 3.0 port on your shiny new laptop. As with the other GoFlex gear, this one also has a removable dongle on the bottom for docking (with an optional GoFlex Net or GoFlex TV HD, naturally), and as with some of the company's past drives, you'll also find an assortment of 20 Paramount Pictures movies that can be unlocked via license key online. She's available in every color you could imagine so long as it's black, and it can be yours for the tidy sum of $249.99.

Continue reading Seagate issues industry's first 1.5TB external 2.5-inch HDD: FreeAgent GoFlex USB 3.0

Seagate issues industry's first 1.5TB external 2.5-inch HDD: FreeAgent GoFlex USB 3.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gigabyte H55 Mini-ITX motherboard and Silverstone SG07 used to build (almost) perfect gaming toaster

Gigabyte H55 Mini-ITX motherboard and Silverstone SG07 used to build (almost) perfect gaming toaster: "

We know you've seen Mini-ITX motherboards before, but how many have managed to fit in a PCI Express x16 lane, two full-sized DIMM slots, and Intel's LGA1156 socket? Gigabyte has done just that with its H55 circuit slab, squeezing the basic requirements for a gaming rig into a 6.7- x 6.7-inch footprint, and the lads over at Tech Report have taken notice. Pairing that tiny rig with a Silverstone SG07 small form factor case, they set out to discover if the PC craze of the Naughties -- SFF computing, mostly sparked off by Shuttle's efforts -- can be resurrected with more modern gear. What they found was that the SG07's 600W PSU stood up to the power demands of a GeForce GTX 470, all parts were somehow maintained in an acceptably cool state without making the enclosure sound like a wind tunnel, and gaming performance was highly satisfactory. Of course, there were some compromises and flaws to both the motherboard and case, but overall it turned out to be 'one heck of a midget gaming system.' Hit the source link for all the build details.

Continue reading Gigabyte H55 Mini-ITX motherboard and Silverstone SG07 used to build (almost) perfect gaming toaster

Gigabyte H55 Mini-ITX motherboard and Silverstone SG07 used to build (almost) perfect gaming toaster originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 07:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | sourceTech Report | Email this | Comments"