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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-05-sonys-alpha-dslr-a100-debuts.html | 2006-06-05 15:13:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony's Alpha DSLR A100 debuts | Looks like theAlpha's what we thought it'd be after all-- and everybody waiting forSony's first official DSLRneed not wait (much) longer. Really, there's nothing much in theAlpha A100 we weren't already speculatingbased on the previous specs reported on the interwebs, but at least now the details are a little more fleshed out: its 10.2 megapixel sensor is a Super HAD (Hole Accumulated Diode) CCD with Super SteadyShot OIS, anti-dust filters and vibration, and Bionz Image Processor hardware; the camera also features the Minolta A-lens mount (of course), a 2.5-inch anti-reflective display, 3fps burst mode, 600 shot lithium-ion Stamina battery,CF and Memory Stick Pro Duo (via CF adapter), and a sweet feature that initiates autofocus when you look into the viewfinder (so you don't have to waste time with the half-press). Not bad, but we're honestly a little worried about the price up in this piece. We'll keep ya posted.Update:and the price! $999, "expected to ship on or before July 28th, 2006" according to theSonyStyle page. Oh, and DP Blog also has somesweet info on the 20 or so lensesannounced for this thing as well, better check that out before you make any buying decisions. There you have it ladies and gents, enjoy. Thanks, Steve. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-06-pepper-computer-announces-pepper-pad-3.html | 2006-06-06 20:17:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Pepper Computer announces Pepper Pad 3 | Hard to believe there was a first and secondPepper Pad(wait, there weren't two, unless you count thatPepper Pad Plus, which we don't), but it looks like with the recent upgrade to the Pepper Platform 3 comes the Pepper Pad 3 as well. Users can look forward to 50 percent longer battery life (supposedly), faster WiFi (802.11g this time, we presume), an integrated webcam, UPnP support, and a new AMD Geode LX 800 0.9 watt processor (instead of Intel's 624MHz Xscale PXA270). It's supposed to launch in August for $699 -- less than before -- but unless they do something about that cripplingly bad keyboard, unresponsive touchscreen, and dearth of applications developed for the "Web player," we can't imagine this one being any more successful than its predecessor(s). |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-07-the-mac-mini-based-delorean-drivable-drive-in.html | 2006-06-07 07:48:00+00:00 | [] | Donald Melanson·Guest Contributor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | The Mac Mini-based DeLorean drivable drive-in | So you've got your shiny, not-quite-newDeLoreanfresh off eBay but still don't think it gives you enough geek cred? Well, you can do what Ryan Brandys did and turn it into a driveable drive-in movie theater with the help of a Mac Mini, a projector, and a bucketload of skill. Ok, just putting a Mac Mini and a projector in a car doesn't really require much skill, but this dude totally pimped it out, installing actuators that open the hood with a push of a button, revealing the 37-inch projector screen mounted under the hood that puts all other in-car movie-watching solutions to shame. He also created custom fiberglass enclosures to keep everything looking pretty, designed a custom Mac Mini dock, and created the Basic Stamp "Brain Box," which makes everything work together. He hasn't, however, tricked out his car to look like the Back to the Future DeLorean but, really, wouldn't you just as soon have this?[ViaTUAW] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-07-visualhub-the-universal-video-converter.html | 2006-06-07 19:15:00+00:00 | [] | David Chartier | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | VisualHub - The universal video converter | VisualHub is a feature-packed and 'universal' video converter for Mac OS X from the maker ofiSquint. From its website: "VisualHub bridges the gap between numerous complicated video formatting standards, and people that just want to get the job done - just what you would expect from the Mac." It boasts fast conversion from nearly every video format to iPod, PSP, DV, DVD, AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG and Flash (what: no animated GIF?), and brags about ts three-step conversion process: click, drag, click.Fortunately, VisualHub also offers advanced features like bitrate control, frame cropping and audio quality. Xgrid is supported for those with multiple Macs on a network and CPU cycles to spare, while QuickTime Pro and other plugins need not apply.VisualHub's long list of features don't stop there, however, so check out Techspansion'sproduct pagefor the full feature list and samples of its work. A demo is available, while a full license will cost you a mere $23.32 USD.[thanks Khaled!] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-08-world-cup-guides-for-ipod-available.html | 2006-06-08 19:00:00+00:00 | [] | Dave Caolo·Managing Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | World Cup guides for iPod available | Will you be attending the World Cup festivities with your iPod in tow? Then you'll want to check out these World Cup iPod Guides. There's a12-city guide from MyCityMatethat lists nearly 800 restaurants, hotels, etc. in Germany that are close to the events.Coolgorilla is also offering aguidethat includes details on all the players, full schedule, stadium details and more, including the final scores from every World Cup match ever. Best of all, the Coolgorilla guide is free.[ViaiLounge] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-08-nwn-mod-creator-on-atari-infinite-dungeons.html | 2006-06-08 21:30:00+00:00 | [] | Alan Rose | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | NWN mod creator on Atari, Infinite Dungeons | Neverwinter Nights Vault recently interviewed Jason Lowry, co-creator of the latestNWNpremium module (Infinite Dungeons) and architect of the random dungeon generator used in the game. Lowry talks about his experience working with BioWare and Atari'sdecisionto cancel the premium module program. An excerpt:"The 1.67 patch was a direct result of the premium module system. It's too bad we could not keep that system working into NWN2 and beyond, it was good for both the company and the consumer, a win-win, those are hard to come by."Download Lowry's original masterpiece,Elidrin's Random Dungeon Generator, from theVault.Infinite Dungeonsis available at theBioWare store. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-16-zi-announces-advanced-chinese-text-messaging-input-system.html | 2006-06-16 20:48:00+00:00 | [] | Donald Melanson·Guest Contributor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Zi announces advanced Chinese text messaging input system | Calgary-based Zi Corporation has announced an updated version of its eZiText predictive text input system that they say is the most advancedpredictive text solution for China to date, making it even easier for users to break China's questionabletexting laws. Zi's new system offers full phrase-level input for both phonetic and stroke modes and promises new levels of error toleration, as well asCangjie support for users in Hong Kong and Taiwan. More details on how well all this actually works should start coming out when the system is unveiled at CommunicAsia in Singapore next week. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-18-usb-teddy-bear-holds-data-scares-children.html | 2006-06-18 17:34:00+00:00 | [] | Stan Horaczek | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | USB teddy bear holds data, scares children | Generally, when someone makes ateddybear-themedgadget, his/her intention is to overwhelm bystanders with cuteness. But whoever created this little guy, whose head has to be removed in order to access the internal USB drive, must have watched one too many Tim Burton movies. No word on how much it holds or if there are any plans to make these available for purchase, but with your own bear, a thumb drive, some thread and a closet full of skeletons, you can probably make your own without too much effort. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-18-riaa-establishes-master-ringtone-sales-award.html | 2006-06-18 20:44:00+00:00 | [] | Stan Horaczek | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | RIAA establishes Master Ringtone Sales Award | The big wigs over at the RIAA have established a new reward system, much like the one they use for traditional albums, called the Master Ringtone Sales Award.They're keeping track of how many times a song has been downloaded as a ringtone -- it has to be the original recording, not some clunky midi version -- and once that number hits 500,000 it's considered to have gone Gold. One million sales merit Platinum status and two million marks the start of the ever-expandable Multi-Platinum category, into which the Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" and three others have already climbed. Check the link for a list of all 128 songs honored -- including someMariah Careyrecorded for Pepsi -- at the inaugural ceremony held in NYC. Rumor has it that next year's event will have a lifetime achievement award for the lateCrazy Frog.
[ViaSlashphone] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-19-hd-dvd-and-blu-ray-movies-released-on-june-20th-2006.html | 2006-06-19 19:30:00+00:00 | [] | Ben Drawbaugh | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | HD DVD and Blu-ray movies released on June 20th 2006 | The war officially starts tomorrow when the first Blu-ray movies hit the shelves. I am not sure if they are launching with a bang, I mean nine titles with only one non-Sony title isn't as impressive as many have hoped, but It is still over twice as many as HD DVD started with. It should start to get real interesting in the next month or so when some other studios join the party.HD DVD is going to keep it's lead for the time being bringing the total number of movies to 26 from 24 with two more from Warner. Has anyone else heard of these movies? We haven't, but we thank Warner for continuing to crank out the titles.Sony is brining out some heavy hitters the first week out, but nothing earth shattering. There are a few movies that should do a good job of showing off the latest format, likeUnderworld: EvolutionandThe Fifth Element. If you were Sony which movies would you have launched this week?For those keeping scoreHD DVD 26 vs Blu-ray 7.HD DVD
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang(Warner)
• Syriana(Warner)
Blu-ray
• 50 First Dates(Sony)
• The Fifth Element(Sony)
• Hitch(Sony)
• House of Flying Daggers(Sony)
• A Knight's Tale(Sony)
• The Last Waltz(MGM)
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse(Sony)
• Underworld: Evolution(Sony)
• xXx(Sony)
[Updated fordelayed Sony releases] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-20-t-mobile-sidekick-3-gets-official.html | 2006-06-20 04:01:00+00:00 | [] | Peter Rojas | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | T-Mobile Sidekick 3 gets official | No shocker here: T-Mobile and Danger are officially unveiling the new Sidekick 3 today. (Note that it's not called the "Sidekick III". T-Mob has requested that it only be written as "Sidekick 3".) The specs are no surprise, either, since they've been rumbling around for weeks now, but we'll run down the official details for ya:
• Size: 130 x 59 x 21.8mm
• Weight: 6.7 ounces
• 240 x 160 pixel, 65,000 color display
• Trackball (!)
• Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Bluetooth 1.2 (limited to Hands-Free profile and vCard exchange)
• 1.3 megapixel digital camera w/LED flash
• miniSD memory card slot (supports up to 2GB cards)
• 64MB of SDRAM/64MB Flash memory
• Music player software
Word has it that T-Mobile will be opening up pre-orders to current Sidekick owners first, with the rest of us getting a crack at it sometime around July 10th.Stay tuned for a slew of hands-on pics. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-21-phoenix-wright-still-hot-still-rare.html | 2006-06-21 17:55:00+00:00 | [] | James Ransom-Wiley | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Phoenix Wright: still hot, still rare | Followingthe announcementthat Capcom is developing a newPhoenix WrightDS title for the Japanese market, PunchJump.com reports that the third printing of the US version ofPhoenix Wright: Ace Attorney(DS) has sold out in roughly a week's time. According to one online retailer, Capcom's next reprint is scheduled for mid-August. In the meantime, consider importing the UK or Japanese* version.*There's a built-in English language option. On the title screen, tap the red button to toggle the language. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-22-toshibas-rd-a1-hd-dvd-recorder-with-1tb-disk.html | 2006-06-22 11:00:00+00:00 | [] | Thomas Ricker | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Toshiba's RD-A1 HD DVD recorder with 1TB disk | Hey, early adopters, we've got something big for ya! Measuring in at about half the size of your average consumer electronics she-waif (that'd be 33-pounds), we bring you the RD-A1 HD DVD recorder set to drop July 14 in Japan. Now, an HD DVD recorder alone is newsworthy being a first and all, but this monster screams for attention with a 1TB disk, TV tuners for Hi-Vision (Japanese hi-def) and terrestrial analog, and good ol' Ethernet forDLNAmedia streaming around the house. Oh, and for those of you unhappy with the, er, limited 1080i output ofTosh's HD-A1 player, this pup slaps in 1080pcapable HDMI from ABT. And if you really need to record more high-def TV than the 92 hours (or 74daysin standard def!) allowed by that massive disk, well, first check your priorities TV-boy then kick back smugly 'cause the RD-A1 records to both HD DVD-R single-layer (15GB) and dual-layer (30GB) discs with support for DVD-RAM/R/RW/R-DL formats to boot. She also packs in all the video and audio jacks you'll likely need in addition to support for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD codecs. No word on a US release, but if thelaunch of the HD-A1was any indicator, we could see this on US shelves just a few weeks after it drops in Japan for ¥398,000 or right around $3,464 in dead presidents. Oh, and if you thought the HD-A1's remote control was cluttered, just check the new remote and more after the break.[ViaImpress] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-22-special-edition-tamagotchi-celebrates-10-years-of-wasted-time.html | 2006-06-23 01:15:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Special Edition Tamagotchi celebrates 10 years of wasted time | We're not afraid to admit it: at the height of theTamagotchicraze we received a cheap imitation digital pet for Christmas and have never recovered emotionally from that pain of that day. Now that Tamagotchi is getting ready to celebrate 10 years of keeping small children from their homework, we feel the tears rushing back, but they are good tears -- tears of healing. Bandai is releasing a limited-run Special Edition of their addictive digital pet to celebrate this joyous occasion, and are producing 1000 each of three different-colored versions. They've tossed the thing into a snazzy Japanese-style box and are selling them in Japan for what we're sure will be prices just as confiscatory as the original. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-23-toshiba-taking-200-loss-on-each-hd-a1-sez-isuppli.html | 2006-06-23 16:57:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Toshiba taking $200 loss on each HD-A1, sez iSuppli | We've long wondered how Toshiba's able to price itsHD-A1HD DVD player at $500 while the Blu-ray camp will be charging $1,000 and up for their next-gen machines, and now the eggheads over at iSuppli are claiming to have the answer. After furiously running all the numbers through their high-tech calculators, the same company that brought us breakdowns of theiPod nanoandXbox 360production costs is estimating that it takes $674 worth of parts to build an HD-A1 -- bringing the total cost to well over $700 when you include labor, packaging, etc. -- which means that Toshiba is taking a $200 loss on each unit sold. Rarely seen outside the world of videogame hardware, this pricing strategy is usually employed to build up a customer base for the devices' highly-profitable software, but in Toshiba's case, achieving significant HD DVD penetration prior to the Blu-ray rollout was probably even more important than the few bucks they make from each HD DVD disc that gets sold. Unfortunately for those of us waiting on a burner to hit the market before making the HD optical plunge, it doesn't sound like Toshiba will also be willing take a loss on thatRD-A1introduced the other day, as its $3,400 pricetag seems to more than cover every little component they're stuffing in there.[ViaHDBeat] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-26-hd-dvd-and-blu-ray-movies-released-on-june-27th-2006.html | 2006-06-26 14:57:00+00:00 | [] | Ben Drawbaugh | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | HD DVD and Blu-ray movies released on June 27th 2006 | Here we are officially in the new format war, this is week two of releases and Blu-ray is still catching up to HD DVD, but has a long way to go. In the past we have been using one source for this information and our laziness has been revealed by a few as previous posts have not been 100% accurate. From this point on we will spend some more time to ensure our information is accurate.This week Warner keeps releasing titles with a classic Mel Gibson movie and Concert Hot Spot releases another concert, in the past we have been missing the concerts which was the main inaccuracy in our lists.Lionsgate joins the Blu-ray party this week with last years Academy Award winner for best Picture;Crash.As well as other great movies likeLord of War, Terminator 2and The Punisher, okThe Punisherwasn't that good, but it was filmed in Tampa which makes it required viewing for me at least. Everyone in the Blu-ray camp is hoping for better reviews of Lionsgate's movies thanSony's titles from last week.This brings the total toHD DVD 32vsBlu-ray 13.HD DVD
• Guitarscape Planet(Concert Hot Spot)
• Lethal Weapon(Warner)
Blu-ray
• Crash(Lionsgate)
• Lord of War(Lionsgate)
• The Punisher(Lionsgate)
• Saw(Lionsgate)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day(Lionsgate)
• Ultraviolet(Sony) |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-26-microsoft-to-pull-a-ps3-place-motion-sensors-in-xbox-360-pad.html | 2006-06-26 21:25:00+00:00 | [] | Conrad Quilty-Harper | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Microsoft to pull a PS3, place motion sensors in Xbox 360 pad? | In a recent episode of Gamertag radio,
Peter Moore speaks out about the increasing complexity of video game controllers, comparing today's gamepads to the simplicity of the Atari 2600's button-and-stick joystick. He didn't exclude the Xbox 360 controller's design from criticism, mentioning that his 14-year old daughter found the controller somewhat confusing. Naturally, there was a point to his self-criticism; later on in the podcast he says that Microsoft is"doing a lot of stuff there. Nothing that we're ready to talk about, and we're not going to force anything that is not going to be intuitive and innovative."The most obvious conclusion to make from this statement would be that Microsoft is working on a new, simplified controller, which may or may not "borrow" the Wiimote's defining feature, although the part where Moore says that "[Microsoft is] not going to force anything that is not going to be... innovative"could suggest that simply slapping a motion sensor inside an Xbox 360 pad isn't on the cards.British tech magazineT3points out that the company could possibly be working on a simplified controller--to be sold in parallel with the main Xbox 360 pad--designed specifically for Xbox Live Arcade games. The magazine reasons that the company won't want to make the Xbox 360 pad'sergonomic designobsolete any time soon, which lends credence to the possibility of a simplified controller designed to play simple games to compliment the "hardcore" 360 gamepad.[ViaEngadget] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-28-palm-and-xerox-finally-settle-graffiti-dispute.html | 2006-06-28 20:45:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Palm and Xerox finally settle Graffiti dispute | 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 toAccess PalmSourceand 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. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-28-starfire-optical-range-a-death-ray-for-sciences-sake.html | 2006-06-28 22:02:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Starfire Optical Range -- a death ray for science's sake | 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. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-28-make-a-dandd-film-win-cool-stuff.html | 2006-06-29 01:30:00+00:00 | [] | Alan Rose | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Make a D&D short film, win cool stuff | The 1UP Network and Wizards of the Coast are soliciting entries for their Dungeons & Dragons Fan Film Fest -- part of the Worldwide D&D Game Day activities to be held in LA this November. Aspiring wizards and warriors have until September 1 to put together an original five minute movie of D&D-related content, which can include footage of D&D video games (with the exception ofDDO). The grand prize winner will receive a new digital video workstation and a trip to the festival, where your masterpiece will be showcased and envied by dungeon masters the world over. Check out theofficial rulesfor more information.If you have any archival footage of that early 80scartoon, now might be a good time to pull it out. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-29-wftv-channel-9-out-of-orlando-goes-high-def.html | 2006-06-29 13:48:00+00:00 | [] | Matt Burns | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | WFTV-Channel 9 out of Orlando goes high-def | Central Florida can now enjoy their local ABC affiliate,WFTV, local newsin beautiful high-def.This station has spent a good amount of money to build a whole new set and upgrade their equipment to handle high definition. Local news is great in high-def and we are happy for the local viewers. Remember that all broadcast stations need to transmit their signal in adigital form by February 17, 2009. Because of this, many stations have chosen to upgrade their news room and take advantage of the new signals. Stations have been doing this for years now and so while WFTV is excited about their new upgrade, we highly doubt their claim as the tenth stationin the countryto go high def with their local news.Do you have any local news stations in high-def? Lets see if we can get more then ten.[I, Matt Burns, have one. Richard has two and Ben: zero][thanks for the tip Bruce] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-29-gamepark-holdings-releases-gp2x-breakout-board.html | 2006-06-30 00:08:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Gamepark Holdings releases GP2X breakout board | Good news forGP2Xowners: Gamepark Holdings (not to be confused with Gamepark, makers of the similarly-namedXGP) 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.[ViaDCEmu] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-30-waterproof-meets-foma-the-so902iwp.html | 2006-06-30 16:39:00+00:00 | [] | Chris Ziegler | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Waterproof meets FOMA: the SO902iWP+ | If we had a dollar for every story we've heard of aflushedcellphone, we'd have, like, ten dollars. NTT DoCoMo's new alphabet soup, the SO902iWP+, may not get you your phone back if it makes its way to your town's sewage system, but it might just be working when it finally gets fished out. Besides sporting the usual FOMA goodies like a stunning UI on a QVGA display, camera, and music player, the candybar is waterproof for up to 30 minutes in 1 meter of water. We're not sure who makes the SO902iWP+ for NTT, but since it includes both a Memory Stick Duo slot andFeliCasupport, we have ourguesses.[ViaMobile Magazine] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-30-hello-kitty-stratocaster-goes-high-end.html | 2006-06-30 18:51:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Hello Kitty Stratocaster goes high-end | Oh Hello Kitty, you adorable little tease -- usually theitems graced with your lovely visageare 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 regularKittycaster guitars, Sanrio and renowned retailer Mitsukoshi 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 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-encrustedgaudinessfound 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. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-05-residential-windmill-saves-money-the-environment.html | 2006-07-05 23:16:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Residential windmill saves money, the environment | Even if you're not into that whole "respecting the environment" thing, how many of you homeowners out there haven't dreamed of slashing or even eliminating your electricity bills? Well a new residential windmill from a company called Southwest Windpower promises to not only help keep you green by reducing your dependency on coal-fired power plants, but to actually provide up to 90% of the juice that a typical household consumes in a year (and by typical, they aren't talking about your 5-computer, 10-monitor family). Even better, the so-called Skystream 3.7, which incorporates its controls and inverter right into the main unit, will automatically switch your house over to grid power if winds fall below 8MPH (maximum efficiency is reached at 20MPH) -- no storage batteries necessary. At around $8,500 including installation of the 35-foot-tower, the Skystream supposedly pays for itself within four to twelve years depending on local wind levels and electricity costs, and if you're really frugal with the juice, some municipalities will even allow you to sell unused output back to the power company. Just because this is fit for residential installations, though, doesn't mean that just anybody can pick one up -- Southwest recommends that you own an acre of land in an area that averages 10MPH wind speeds, and of course, that not-unobtrusive tower needs to comply with local zoning laws -- so the millions of us living in dense urban settings or gated communities will have to continue paying through the nose and destroying the environment in order to power our many gadgets.[ViaGizmag] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-06-sony-under-fire-for-racist-advertising.html | 2006-07-06 08:05:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony under fire for "racist" advertising | Sony, seriously, this is getting out of hand. Every time we want to rethink what you're doing and try to back you guys up, you go and pull some stunt like this latest ad campaign in Holland, which, as one can see above, depicts a "white PSP" avatar/model violently holding the mouth of a "black PSP" avatar/model -- in commemoration of the launch of theceramic whitePSP, of course. The billboard pictured here is one of supposedly somewhere near 100 evocative images created for the campaign with the same theme, which found viewers of the ads -- and game lovers alike -- crying foul at Sony's latest foible cum PR fiasco (and believe us, we're sure to catch some fire for calling it just that). When it comes down to it we honestly don't think Sony is stupid enough to mean any ill will -- or smart enough to capitalize on a PR firestorm -- with such an ad campaign. But instead of confronting the issue and addressing peoples' concerns, they meagerly defended themselves to GamesIndustry.biz with the following: "The marketing campaign for the launch of the White PSP in the Benelux focuses on the contrast between the Black PSP model and the new Ceramic white PSP model," and "A variety of different treatments have been created as a campaign to either highlight the whiteness of the new model or contrast the black and the white models. Central to this campaign has been the creation of some stunningly photographed imagery..." Oh, make no mistake Sony, the animosity and drama of the imagery, the visceral emotional implication of powerful racial overtones, this is a huge blunder. And once again we find ourselves urging -- nay, demanding -- Tokyo reevaluate what the hell it is they're doing these days. Because mistake or not, this biz doesn't fly, Sony, and you're not helping the perception that you're an incredibly callous megacorp with little real direction.P.S. -As always, we encourage a discussion. A sensitive, intellectual, worldly discussion. If you can't infer what it is we're asking of our dear readers tempted to intone on this matter, then please skip commenting on this thread, mkay?[ViaJoystiqandGamesIndustry] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-06-ds-fanboy-vs-gba-movie-player.html | 2006-07-07 02:50:00+00:00 | [] | Ludwig Kietzmann | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | DS Fanboy vs. GBA Movie Player | Deep within the recesses of the DS Fanboy labs, the SD version of the GBA Movie Player has been enduring poking, prodding and occasional squeezing for quite some time now, up until the point where failure to post a review would be deemed by many as inappropriate and downright offensive. Doubly so considering that said labs don't actually exist. Compelled by the logo prominently emblazoned all across this site, we mainly tested the device on the Nintendo DS and the DS Lite and were pleased to find that the device performs surprisingly well.There is a caveat, however, one that should loom over your online purchase like an owl slowly circling a confused mouse, waiting for the opportune moment to swoop down and devour a furry feast. Once you look up and become aware of the bird of prey, you'll be better equipped to determine whether or not the Movie Player is worth your money. Ignoring it will only lead to disappointment which, going by this ill-conceived allegory, means you will geteaten by an owl. A big one.Essentially, the problem with the GBA Movie player isn't a problem with the GBA Movie player at all. It's that thing it plugs into. As a media playing device, the DS is a bit crap.
"Thisone goes here,thatone goes there!"Stepping away from the whole being eaten alive by a hooting creature thing, someone should explain how this thing works.Oh, right. That would beourjob. Within the non-threatening packaging, you'll find the Movie Player in the form of a GBA cartidge, a tiny CD-R containing the software and a suprisingly Engrish-free manual. An SD card is not included.
The Movie Player works with any device that has a GBA slot, and the only reason there isn't an old GBA in the picture is because we sold ours to a little girl ages ago for more money than it cost to purchase a GBA SP. Ha, take that little girl!
The GBA cartridge boasts a tiny slot on the side for you to slide in the SD card containing the media (more on this later) you want to play. As you'll note from the picture, provided you can take your eyes off those hideous fingers, the Movie player is also compatible with Mini-SD cards housed in a converter.
Once you've slotted in the SD card, you simply plug the GBA cartridge into your handheld and turn on the power. For those sensitive to public cartridge exposure, note that the Movie Player is quite large and sticks out a little in the GBA SP.
It visibly tries to escape the confines of the DS Lite.
The Windows-only software allows you to convert the movies, music and images on your computer's hard drive to a format that the GBA and DS can understand (technical gobbledygook). Unfortunately, with no USB support, it's largely left to you when it comes to transferring those files to the SD card -- it can be done via acard readeror, if you don't have that, a device that can hold your SD card and connect to your PC via USB (like a digital camera).Lights, camera, compressionThere are two different programs designated for movie conversion. The first isbetasoftware which claims to convert your legitimately purchased DVD movies for portable viewing, but in actual fact it accomplishes little more than to annoy and deluge you in non-sensical error messages. Since it was clearly programmed by a monkey assaulting a keyboard with a spatula, be sure to use your own DVD conversion software instead. That way, you can convert the resulting files with the second program, a general video converter which is infinitely more reliable.The interface isn't terribly complicated and allows multiple files to be lined up for conversion. Just about every relevant video format is supported, including AVI, MPEG, WMA, MOV, RM and RMVB. An added bonus is that if any of your videos use seperate VOB subtitle files, the converter will automatically incorporate the text into the video. It's also possible to set different time segments and compression qualities for files in the list, with high quality video being roughly double the size of low quality. The 512MB size cap is a little odd, though it should only pose a minor quibble to those with 1GB and up SD cards. If a video goes over the limit you've set, a new file containing the rest of the clip is automatically created.
It's not my specialtyOnce you've leaped through the conversion hoops, you'll be in prime position to play the video back on your handheld. The playback quality seems to be identical on all platforms, with the only differences being in regards to the quality of their screens. The video is surprisingly good, but there's no way we can end the sentence without using the phrase, "at least for the GBA and DS."We suspect the GBA and, to a lesser degree, the DS' technical limitations are more to blame than the actual Movie Player kit. These platforms simply aren't equipped to provide high quality media playback, and the sooner you accept and understand that, the easier it becomes for you to figure if this is something you want. Noticeable compression artifacts, a lower framerate (seemingly just below a film's 24 frames per second) and somewhat raspy sound make it a weak movie player, though it's unlikely that you purchased either machine with the idea that you'd spend a lot of time watching videos on it. If you wanted that, you would have gotten a video iPod or a PSP, both of which far outclass Nintendo's machines in this particular area.Therefore, the GBA Movie Player only becomes truly appealing when you have no other portable media players available to you or are willing to put up with less than stellar video playback because you're simply going to use it as a bonus feature. Only then can we easily recommend this device which, to be fair, does a great job of making something out of a handheld's more notable weaknesses.Screening the suspectsThe original GBA SP playing a movie is a lot like a cinema that doesn't turn off the lights. It's hard to make out darker scenes and things look a bit washed out. Even so, it's still reasonably watchable and those with the newer model SP won't have as much of a problem.
On the DS Phat, things are much better. Colors are a good deal brighter and darker scenes require far less squinting, though a drawback comes in the form of only a portion of the screen being used for playback. Since it taps into the DS' backwards compatibility, the movie player uses the same amount of (single) screen space that GBA games do. Bad news for subtitles, then.
As you might expect, the DS Lite and its frighteningly bright screen yields the best results. Apart from the aforementioned issues, the video looks quite good here and certainly gives animated shows a very vivid representation.
Hopefully, a movie player exclusively designed for the the DS and its features is in the pipeline, as that would certainly address many of the issues inherent to one currently being held back by an older handheld."Yes, alright! You sound like a broken MP3 player!"The Movie Player can also play MP3s, something which adds a great deal to its value, especially if you've got a Game Boy Micro. The music conversion software is solid and will convert your MP3, WMA or WAV files into GBA sound files. Depending on yourmusictastes, you're free to create your very own Play-Yanni with this thing. (We've been planning that joke since the beginning.)We testedthe musicon a stolen pair of Bose QuietComfort 2 noise cancelling headphones and noted that, apart from some loss of sound depth, the DS makes for a fair MP3 player (though it's not exactly in the same league as a dedicated device like the iPod). Quite pleasingly, the DS won't go into sleep mode when you fold it shut and will continue playing music, allowing you to switch tracks with the L and R buttons.
A thousand bad wordsImages (which also need to be converted first) can be read by the Movie Player and displayed on your DS screen, though it's tough to recommend such a feature when the pixels forming the image seem to be actively running away from each other. A photo with few colors and minimal detail turns out okay, but once things get busier it turns into a horrible, pixelated mess. If you thought you weren't photogenic before, this will only deal a further blow to your frail self-esteem.
This review is too damn longThe Movie Player is also able to display text files for those that absolutely must readThe Da Vinci Codeon a tiny screen and, thanks to a nebulous "games" menu option, it can load and play NES files. Homebrewers are sure to be interested in that one.With the GBA Movie Player now thoroughly dissected, it should become apparent to you that, given the limitations of the platform, it isn't the ideal media playing solution. It is, however, a very good device if you're just trying to get that little bit of extra mileage out of the DS. In-between those Phoenix Wright sessions, it might be nice to listen to some music or watch a movie. The Movie Player serves it function quite well ... just don't expect the world from it or your DS.Final verdict:A solid movie and music player on a platform that's not particularly suited to doing either.If you're suddenly filled with the desire to get one of these, know that they're available atLik-Sangfor $24.90. There's also aCompact Flash versionavailable for the same price. If you have any further questions about the GBA Movie Player, be sure to post them in the comments section. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-08-apple-sneaks-new-logic-board-into-whining-macbook-pros.html | 2006-07-08 16:56:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Apple sneaks new logic board into whining MacBook Pros | They sort of skipped the first step: admitting they have a problem, but Apple is at least starting to patch stuff up with their customers who have been complaining aboutwhining MacBook Prossince the release of the product. MacBook Pro user Rickard Almqvist sent in his MBP for some repairs and got it back with a new logic board and a friendly letter from Apple letting him know what was up. The new version of the logic board requires OS X 10.4.6, as opposed to the machine's original 10.4.5, so they included some new install DVDs in case he needs to reinstall. After the upgrade he hasn't had any whining problems, and he, along with other users with similar reports, is attributing it to the new board. No word yet if Apple will offer this upgrade to users who merely complain of the whine, or if you'll need a more serious problem to crop up before they'll do the swap-a-roo, but it does look like there's hope on the horizon beyond justbuying a new revisionof the troublesome laptop.[ViaTUAW] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-08-lg-fusic-music-phone-reviewed.html | 2006-07-08 22:30:00+00:00 | [] | Stan Horaczek | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | LG Fusic music phone reviewed | If you're thinking about picking upLG's Fusic(otherwise known as theLG550) you might want to block off some time to read Phone Scoop's incredibly thorough review. The handset, which is available now from Sprint, gets high marks for design and advanced features like excellent battery life, A2DP and an FM transmitter, but is hurt by the fact both music players (one for songs purchased from the Sprint Music Store and one for everything else) can't multitask, so if you need to check your texts, you'll have to do it in silence. The review goes on to admit that even with interchangeable faceplates and a very familiar scroll wheel, the Fusic is geared more toward the occasional listener than the audiophile, so don't go making a spot in the junk drawer just yet. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-10-a-visit-to-the-engadget-store.html | 2006-07-10 20:20:00+00:00 | [] | Peter Rojas | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | A visit to the Engadget store... | That "Engadget" store in Malaysia? Yeah, it's for real, Engadget reader/shopper Jereme Tupa swung by the store on a recent visit to Kuala Lumpur and captured some nice footage of a very nervous-looking clerk denying that he'd ever heard of Engadget the website. Whatever, dude, we're not going to sue you or anything, but don't front that you didn't swipe both our name and our logo. Just fess up (and maybe throw in a nice little gift certificate to your shop) and we'll let it slide.WATCH - StorefrontWATCH - Denial |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-12-protein-coated-discs-could-enable-50tb-capacities.html | 2006-07-12 13:55:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Protein-coated discs could enable 50TB capacities | We know that it shouldn't come as a shock anymore when researchers announce new storage technologies that promise to hold tantalizingly large amounts of data, but we were still pretty stoked to learn that a recent breakthrough at Harvard Medical School may eventually lead to DVD-size discs whose capacities approach an eye-popping 50TB. Unlike traditional optical or magnetic solutions, the disc developed by Professor V Renugopalakrishnan and his colleagues is coated with thousands of light-activated proteins called bacteriorhodopsin which are found in the membrane of a particular salt marsh microbe -- and which temporarily convert to a series of intermediate molecules when exposed to sunlight. That property allows the proteins to act as individual bits in a binary system, but since they have a tendency to return to their grounded state after mere hours or days, Renugopalakrishnan and his team modified the requisite microbes' DNA to produce proteins capable of maintaining that intermediary state for several years. Unfortunately we won't see this technology come to market anytime soon, and even when it does, 50TB capacities will still be a ways off, so it looks like we'll have to settle for those disappointing200GB Blu-ray discsfor the foreseeable future.[ViaGotakon] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-13-six-from-ea.html | 2006-07-13 17:21:00+00:00 | [] | Jason Wishnov | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Six from EA | Electronic Arts generally releases games for more platforms than we even knew existed. Thus, when they announce support for the Wii, we have troubleactingsurprised, even for the benefit of our readers. When they announce that their tried-and-true franchises are being given unique control schemes by a dedicated team, however, we then tend to pay a bit more attention.Everyone knew, of course, that Madden 2007 was getting aspecialized Wii treatment. In a press release earlier today, however, they have announced similar plans forfive moregames:Harry Potter, Need for Speed, Tiger Woods: PGA TOUR, SSX,andThe Godfather. Whoa.Need for Speed: Carbonwas indeed known to be coming to the Wii, albeit we had no idea what playing it would be like. Chances are, it will utilize a similar control scheme asExcitetruck, the Wiimote aligned horizontally.Tiger Woodswill offer a more intense golf simulation over that of the Wii Sports incarnation,Harry Potterwill certainly use the controller as a wand for some excellent spell-casting, andSSXwill most likely revamp their trick system. AndThe Godfather? Is anyone else seeing an intense cigar-smoking simulation?[Thanks, John and Cabbage!] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-14-db-weiss-takes-on-halo-script.html | 2006-07-14 15:55:00+00:00 | [] | Ross Miller·Associate Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | DB Weiss takes on Halo script [update 1] | Author D.B. Weiss, whose novelLucky Wander Boyearned him some critical acclaim, recently spoke to GameSetWatch about the success of his book and his current project: theHalomovie script.What about Alex Garland, who was reportedly paid $1 million for his screenplay? It is not rare for a studio to bring in another author to clean up and tweak a script, and that's our guess for what Weiss is currently doing. Weiss is also working on "an entirely new second draft" for theLucky Wander Boyadaptation as well as tacklingEnder's Gamealongside David Benioff.If nothing else (director,actors, production dates), at least the script is working out.[via1UP][update 1: In an e-mail exchange, Weiss told Joystiq that, while he can't say much, he is "doing a rewrite on the Garland script forHalo." Also, since a Joystiq commentor was curious aboutEnder's Game, Weiss said this: "Orson Scott Card wrote anEnder's Gamescript, as did Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, and myself."] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-14-ps3-dev-kit-bsod-sorta.html | 2006-07-14 21:10:00+00:00 | [] | Conrad Quilty-Harper | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | PS3 dev kit BSOD... sorta | For the Develop Conference in Brighton, Sony (who was the primary sponsor of the conference) set up a booth equipped with multiple PSP "pods" and a couple of large widescreen LCDs showing PS3 tech demos. One of the demonstrations was a large shoal of different types of fish swimming around a large space, and the other was a 3D water simulation with semi-realistic waves.I spent a few seconds playing with the surprisingly light Dual Shake controller -- my first time, I didn't attend E3 -- and pressed select. For whatever reason, and this is why development kits are generally never shown to the public, the demo slowed to a halt, with the nice blue picture jerking away at 3fps continuously in the frame. In a technical sense this isn't a blue screen of death, but it did die displaying a blue screen, so therefore I proudly claim the title of "world's first non-developer to cause a PlayStation 3 to display a blue screen of death". It's certainly the most pretty pseudo-BSODthat I've ever seen. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-17-the-engadget-interview-iriver-america-president-jonathan-sasse.html | 2006-07-17 18:39:00+00:00 | [] | Peter Rojas | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | The Engadget Interview: iriver America President Jonathan Sasse | We recently had the chance to sit down with iriver America President Jonathan Sasse, who gave us an refreshingly candid take on the company's recently relaunchedclixportable media player, its close relationship with MTV's new URGE music download service, and the uphill struggle to increase share in a market dominated by the iPod:
Thanks for sitting down with me this afternoon. There's a lot to talk about, but the big news is that iriver just re-launched the U10 as the clix and announced a relationship with URGE, MTV's new music download service. Could you give us an overview of both the launch and the relationship with URGE, and how it came about?
The launch is going well and the response has been great. Obviously there's been a lot of great reviews. The interesting thing with the clix is that it's a lot more than a new name for the U10.I've noticed some improvements in the UI.Yeah, the UI's been changed a lot. The hardware's actually different, too. We upgraded the processor, and obviously the memory and the price are different, too.It all goes back to late last year. Microsoft came to us and let us know that they we're going to do a new version of Windows Media Player that's gonna be dramatically different than Windows Media Player 10 in a much more visual way and from an experience standpoint.They also said that they would have a new service partner, though they didn't say who at the time. They said, "We've got somebody that's pretty big and can make a big impact in this space and we'd like to bring you guys on board to help be a great device on that system."They knew the service had to be really good, but at the end of the day they couldn't just have a smattering of devices that they just grabbed any type of device and plugged it in and said, "There you go."
They wanted to have good integration.Right. They wanted some tight integration. You want everything to look like it belongs together and you don't want the best features of any of those things not to be reciprocated along the system. So, we took a look at the opportunity and the time frame, and the time frame was tight. We knew we had until May and this was December and we were just talking about it. The good thing is that we're pretty nimble.The other thing is that we'd had a good response to the U10 so far like, "The U10 is pretty cool. The interface is different." It's cool that it has a big screen on such a small device. We all agreed that the pricing was not competitive, and that there were some things on the interface that weren't so snappy and some things that were confusing. We knew all that going into it, it was just that we haven't hit the home run that we had originally looked at on the U10.
How much flexibility does iriver America have make these sorts of arrangements with MTV and Microsoft?It's pretty collaborative. What we did is I went with Microsoft to Korea. We sat down and said, "What opportunities do we have here?" You know, it takes a tremendous amount of engineering resources. It's a global product, and even though the URGE rollout was going to be in North America, the impact on the evolution of the U10 was going to be universal. So, we sat down and we looked at it. We met with Microsoft. We knew this could be a good opportunity, but it was still unclear who was the music partner. We had to ask some hard questions: How many resources is it going to take for us? Are we really going to be able to hit this date? There's always one thing, and we've all done it in product development where we sit down and we say, "Wouldn't it be great if by March 5 we could launch this thing?" And everybody's like, "Sure." And then we put all our resources together and you can't do it.So, there's a lot of leg work that had to be done, but we went back and looked at. What does it take to make the U10 this device? Can we do it? Because if we start doing big hardware changes and things, this timeframe is almost impossible. There's no way.So the question was, "What can we do to change the experience on the U10 in conjunction with Microsoft and this service partner where that work could be a really cool thing?"It became clear that MTV was the partner and we met with MTV and in a lot of ways we kind of had to sell ourselves to MTV. They're saying, "Okay. We're going to go out with this service that doesn't work with iPod. Who are going to be our go-to guys for this?" Microsoft's saying things like, "Hey, at the end of the day iriver moves fast and they make cool stuff, so you should talk to them."Was iriver in competition with any other manufacturers for this spot?I think there were a number of companies that everybody was looking at. I'm sure that – and I don't know who it was – but I know that MTV said, "Well, hey. Here's some of the ones we know. What can they do? Can we go to them?"It seems like everyone is aligning themselves with one of the major PlaysForSure download services. There's iriver and URGE, Samsung and Napster, SanDisk and Rhapsody. The upside is improved integration, but is that really healthy for PlaysForSure as a platform?Well, it's a good plan, but even for us I still I definitely consider Napster a great partner, and Real and Yahoo and all these guys. It's still better for the consumer to be able to use whatever service they want. I fully subscribe to that.In this case it was MTV saying, "We want to change the way people discover content and the music experience of the system." And, of course, there is no question that the MTV brand, associated with music, is pretty natural, right? It's something that wasn't a computer company or wasn't a technology, but a branded music experience that consumers know. Would you trust MTV to give you a playlist of 100 rock songs? Sure. I'll try that.There's also been this challenge where I think that music subscriptions as an experience are cool. I think that people who have a chance to use a subscription service really dig it.Now if your thing is ripping CDs, it's not for you, but the overall experience on subscription is really slick. I love it, and I firmly believe that it's perfect for people that are looking for just an all-you-can-eat service that let's them discover new stuff.The part we were missing was that it's still somewhat daunting to tell somebody, "Hey, you're not going to own it, but you'll have access to two million songs."What kind of feedback are you getting so far?The feedback we're getting from people is great, especially is on the discovery portion of that. First, it's visual like iTunes. There are some cool things about helping people discover new stuff, but the piece that is impressing people who have seen and used iTunes who are experiencing a subscription-type service for the first time, is this notion of these dynamic feeds and these playlists. It's just something that you just can't do on a per download basis.There's something very cool about being able to just add new play lists and put them on your device. It does require a certain level of additional development on the device side, and the first time you play that device, you're not going to get that same experience. And that's just the nature of technology evolving. That's why it was so important to get the clix right, so that if I take a feed that auto-updates on a regular basis and put it on a clix, then when I put my clix in I need to get the new stuff, right?It just has to work.Exactly, it just has to work, and that part of it I really believe is there. I think that most people who are new to a digital music experience and that give URGE a shot, I think they're going to find that it's fun.It's fun to hear from consumers that are trying it. People are calling us and telling us they love it. Which is cool, any time somebody goes out of their way to tell you something, you know they really mean it. Something's inspired them to contact you. It's cool to hear from people that, "Hey, I got the clix and tried URGE and it's great." My wife is always the person that says, "Here's my CD. Go rip it and put it on my player for me." Or, "I'm tired of my music. Go get me new music that I like." And then to watch her sit with URGE, where she finds all the genres she likes and gets content pushed to her. She loves it. We're hearing a lot of that. People will sit and play with URGE. It's not work.With the clix and URGE are you primarily trying to get iPod users to switch, or are you focusing on people who have never owned an MP3 player before? What's the target market?I think it's a number of things. I don't expect that one day somebody sitting at home with their iPod is going to see a commercial for URGE where maybe the clix is featured and the say, "Wow, I gotta ditch my iPod," and then our marketshare just completely changes. I have no illusions that that's gonna happen.But people do go through devices, right? "I bought one two years ago, and now I'm ready for a new one." We see this with cellphones, too, especially given the way storage capacities change. There are people who maybe bought a 256MB player a couple of years ago and are planning to get something new. That's certainly a great target for us.I think that with respect to the iPod specifically, I think URGE has a great opportunity to get the iPod/iTunes consumer to try a subscription service. It doesn't mean they're going to go buy clix, but they're going to try it and say, "This is pretty cool, and I just downloaded a 100 track playlist and it didn't cost me one hundred bucks. That's kind of neat. And I could mix and match songs."I think over time that experience is going to translate to "Why doesn't iPod have a subscription? That'd be cool." With the iPod so in the mainstream it's important that you see this from a consumer standpoint or even a fan standpoint, and that they're saying things like, "I don't know why MTV won't just allow it to work on iPod." Or, "I don't know why iriver just can't get iTunes. What's iriver doing? These guys are crazy."If I could put a switch on my device and let people buy using iTunes, we would do that tomorrow. At the same time, eventually you'd want an URGE subscription to work on an iPod, and if that was cool with everybody in Cupertino, that would happen.A lot of people just assume that Apple is not the problem.It is interesting. Our expectation is that what we wanted was to build a good portable device that would be great if it's someone's first device or if it's their next device, and that their experience is gonna be really good. Like, "Wow! I didn't need to buy an iPod to get this thing all my friends are talking about."I don't think we're just going to go and grab 50 percent market share this year, but the experience is exceptional and I really believe that if somebody has an iPod nano with iTunes today and the guy next to him has a clix and is showing off what he can do with it, that there's a good chance that person will say, "Wow. I wish my nano did those things."How important is design to the success of a player like the clix?It was clear that the chic, the cool factor of an iPod had to be delivered in a sense where people would be proud to show off their device.You know, we were in a very interesting position there, because over the last few years there's been a delicate shift for us. Our fans are like, "These guys are the no‑nonsense technology guys. They put on every bell and whistle on this thing, and they trust that I'm smart enough to know how to do it."That's a tough one because you know on one hand we have to continue to try and support new things, but we still have to dress it up in a way that, yeah, I can still hand it to anybody and they think it is cool. And in some cases, other brands haven't had to deal with that in a similar way. But we definitely have.I sat next to somebody recently on a flight who had an iPod video and I was messing with the clix, and this guy kept looking and he's like, "Hey, is that some kind of an iPod?"So I explained the player to him, and as he was watching me navigate, he's like, "That looks pretty cool." And then the first thing he did was take the clix and his iPod video to look at the screen size, and he saw ours was about the same. But then he realized how bland the interface was on his iPod, and he's like, "Wow! It's very colorful," as he was playing with it.It was great to see him playing with it, because for him, he was an iPod consumer, but he was lusting after the thing I was playing with.Speaking of the UI, how well do you think the user interface on the clix will scale once you get beyond 2GB? It seems to do a great job when you have only 500 songs on there, but what happens when you get up 20GB or 40GB and you have to navigate a collection of tens of thousands of songs? That seems to be one advantage the iPod has it with its scroll wheel.There are lot of things that you can do to help scale that, some of them we intentionally left out on 2GB player just to avoid unnecessarily hurrying people to the end of the list of something. But there's a lot of things like alpha scrolling and accelerated scrolling that you can do that usually resolves those problems.
How deep does your relationship with URGE and MTV go? Is MTV going to be promoting the clix?
Right now we're definitely still in kind of a broad mode. MTV features the clix pretty prominently on URGE and even within the Windows Media Player 11 when you look at devices, clix is very prominent there.What about on-the-air? Will the clix be featured in shows?I think that what we expect from MTV is that it's kind of a momentum build for everybody. I expect as we move in toward back to school and as we move into the holiday buying season, I would expect MTV to start to ramp up and feature that in a more prominent way.Do they actually have to do a certain amount of promotion on the air as part of your partnership?Well, here's the thing, I think we have to go about this in a couple different ways. On our side was we felt that if we could build the device that MTV would love, that we would ultimately secure ourselves a place where when they go out with their service and say, "Here's the device it works with," we want that to be the clix. We want them to passionately love the clix, and I think we're there.A lot of the marketing pieces haven't been completed yet, but we think their service is really great and MTV thinks the clix is really great. And in order for the whole experience to be shown to consumers there will be some component [of showing URGE and clix together] of that for sure.Obviously one of the reasons why we were so excited to go into something like this was MTV. Not only are they a phenomenal music brand, but they know their way around the marketing block and so it's certainly in their best interest to get their audience to check out URGE. And like I said, our part has been to build an awesome device.It looks like Microsoft is going to be introducing a portable media player of its own later this year, how might that affect iriver and its relationship with Microsoft?Microsoft is a great partner and we expect continued success moving forward. The potential launch of a device by Microsoft does not appear to threaten our relationship in any way. In fact, any potential effort by Microsoft in this space could further raise awareness in the industry and elevate the overall success of devices like the clix.
Where are things going on the hardware side? I know you've shown off someKorea-specific devices with built-in WiBro, but what else is coming? Will we see a larger, more video-centric version of the clix that comes with a widescreen?
As you know I'm a big gadget guy, I love gadgets. I love toys. I love to play with stuff, and like a lot of your readers I'm one of those people who is bummed out when something cool comes out in another country and I can't get it.There's definitely some exciting stuff that's happening in Asia on the networking side, and it's fun to be part of it. It's tough to be there when our market is so far behind and we won't get to play with those great toys here in the immediate future, but there's definitely a lot of promise around the WiMax stuff, stuff that's going into South Korea, and ultimately extending into Japan.It's amazing to think if you strip everything away and just say, "You know, what if I can have a broadband connection all the time wherever I am?" That's pretty sweet, right? So now you can think, "Okay, so what kind of cool stuff would I do?" I'm going be online getting my email, steaming music and video. Maybe at that point storage isn't as big of a deal because I can stream anything from anywhere.We're still looking to push that type of a product out with a service provider Korea, it's just a matter of the network getting wrapped up. There is a clear opportunity for us as a company to be able to develop those first and second generation WiMax-type devices.What about a widescreen clix?The clix is pretty scalable. Not just in capacity, but in screen size and other things like. It's pretty cool to be able to make a device that has a big screen but is not a huge device.One of the cool things with the U10 originally was, "Hey, guess what guys? We don't need to have the other half of the player." And when you do video you can get three or four-inch displays and you can watch this really slick display on a thin device.Again, there is this delicate balance between the early adopters and the issue of where do you really get content. That's the tough thing. I think that there's definitely this continuous waiting game of "Where's the real cool content to watch on video?"It's not yesterday's TV show for $1.99. That's not the holy grail of video. We're still a ways away from that. We're getting closer. I think that more and more people are finally getting past some of the hurdles that have held them up.But does that mean that a super mainstream video player's where it's at? I don't know yet. Apple was able to make a pretty smart move by just completely replacing their audio players with a video player. Now for three hundred bucks what you get is a video player, so it helps build a foundation for that.At the end of the day I still think people are buying these players for audio, and if they're video, too, that's cool. But right now to just specifically go out and buy a video player you've got to be really be into conversions and jumping through the DRM hurdles.Any higher capacity devices on the horizon?It would be crazy for me to say that 2GB is the max and that's all we're gonna do. We're looking at whether in real high capacity flash device, you know, does a physical drive, as opposed to high capacity flash, make sense? I don't know that it does but we're certainly looking at that, and this is where it's tough, because personally I'm in that same minority group that says, "I'll take a 200 gig player with a sweet screen, and if I have to, I'll install 20 different codecs on my machine to make it all work." We know that the average person walking into Best Buy isn't going to buy that, much less know how to use it. And we need some help from the content guys to really push that over the edge there.I think one of the interesting things with the clix and the U10 is – and a lot of people might disagree with me on this -- but I would say for the most part that the people who immediately bash the player's 15 frames per second video playback haven't really watched it. Because I don't get it. I mean 25, 30 frames per second, yeah, that's great. On an audio player that can also do video, 15 frames per second is pretty watchable, especially on a 2½-inch screen.If all of the real premium audio devices can start playing video content, hopefully it will encourage the content guys to move. And so we're watching that pretty closely.Thank you. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-19-infinium-changes-name-to-phantom-entertainment.html | 2006-07-20 03:17:00+00:00 | [] | Darren Murph | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Infinium changes name to Phantom Entertainment | We're trying to overlook the glaring irony in "Phantom" Entertainment, especially since year after year this company has been the most prominent vaporware hit since Duke Nukem Forever, but we just can't ignore the latest bit in their Phantom's comedy of errors that now hasour favorite gaming companyofficially changing name in hopes of "invigorating its marketing approach." The path forward as of a few months ago had Infinium getting ready and set to change their name, thePhantom Lapboardset for release in Q2 of this year (wait, that's right now), and their Phantom Game Service to follow suit, but in a recent blurb from CEO Greg Koler, he astoundingly couldn't provide announcement dates for either. Previously blaming the annoyance of lawsuits and aninability to come up with $11.5 million, we've yet to hear a more recent excuse as to why we should still put faith in the powers at Phantom, but they did accomplish one thing: changing that name, and issuing another six hundred million worthless shares of stock. Regardless of the never-ending delays, we're keeping our fingers crossed, because the new and (potentially) improved Phantom Entertainment could seriously rattle the gaming market, erm,someday. And in the mean time, let the pumping and dumping begin! |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-20-gizmo-project-makes-all-voip-to-landline-calls-free-forever.html | 2006-07-20 09:12:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Gizmo Project makes all VoIP to landline calls free. Forever. | Skype ruffled some feathers in the internet telephony world earlier this year when they announced they'd be offering free SkypeOut calls to the US and Canada for the rest of 2006. We weren't too interested since it came off as little more than a promotion, and we typically skip over promos (for obvious reason). But we're kind of left wondering howSkype--deep eBay pocketsand all -- intends to compete with archrivalGizmo Project's latest tactic: free Gizmo-to-landline calls anywhere, anytime, any amount, forever. We'll probably be spending a while trying to make heads from tails of their business plan which pretty much totally gives away the shop, but who's really going to be reeling here isthe restof the VoIP telephony industry that's currently clawing desperately to monetize on landline phone replacements. Not everything's free with Gizmo Project, however; even though you can all over Europe, Asia, and the Americas (to 60 countries and counting), if you want your pals to call you on Gizmo fromtheirlandlines, you're going to have to buy a Call In number. (Fret not though, since those cost as little as $3 a month.) Also, in order to call them up they need to have a number registered to an active Gizmo account, which increases the barrier to entry by a bit. But what started with Captain Crunch's 2600Hz whistle may now end with Gizmo Project's capture of the biggest voice trunk of all time; if this is any sign of things to come, we'd say the free voice revolution may finally have a proper flagbearer. So let the free phone wars begin. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-20-americas-influence-on-the-super-mario-bros-franchise.html | 2006-07-20 15:05:00+00:00 | [] | Blake Snow | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | America's influence on the Super Mario Bros. franchise | About.com explores what elements really belong toMarioand what belong toDoki Doki Panicfrom which the former franchise is heavily influenced starting withSuper Mario Bros. 2. From the article: "Nintendo had decided the actualMario 2was too difficult for an overseas release and pulled the title and modifiedDoki Dokiinstead. In order to makeDoki Doki PanicMario-like, they made some small changes, upgraded the character graphics, and sent "Mario 2" onto the market."Follow the link for 12 differences betweenSuper Mario Bros. 2andDoki Doki Panic. Let it be known.[viaSlashdot] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-21-hiroshi-ishiguro-builds-his-evil-android-twin-geminoid-hi-1.html | 2006-07-21 13:02:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Hiroshi Ishiguro builds his evil android twin: Geminoid HI-1 | Seems like Hiroshi Ishiguro decided that if he's going to be a roboticist he might as well be a total badass about it, and has developed an "angry eyes" version of himself, the Geminoid HI-1. Other than a fewParent Trapinspired shenanigans we're sure he pulls on fellow researchers at ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories near Kyoto, Ishiguro is mainly using the bot to teach his classes for him, and creep out students with lifelike movements such as blinking, "breathing" and fidgeting. The bot can be remotely controlled via a motion capture system that tracks Ishiguro's mouth movements and allows the bot to speak his voice -- or that of an assistant if he's feeling particularly listless. The incredible realism comes from silicone molds cast from Ishiguro's own body, similar to the process behinda certain female residentof the uncanny valley, and is a bit of an experiment in the viability of telepresence. Ishiguro wants to find out if he can really command the attention of a classroom with a mere robot doppelgänger, but we're sure he doesn't mind skipping that commute either. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-22-cablelabs-approves-motorolas-multi-stream-cablecard.html | 2006-07-22 11:44:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | CableLabs approves Motorola's multi-stream CableCARD | It's not really clear why the oldCableCARDhasn't taken off as expected -- consumers blame their cable providers, who blame the card manufacturers, who blame device makers -- but nonetheless, the technology is far from dead, and now it looks like those long-awaited multi-stream CARDS could be available before the end of the year. CableLabs recently announced that Motorola's "M-Card" has joined Scientific Atlanta's offering in finally earning the organization's coveted "qualified" status, paving the way for such great functionality as picture-in-picture on compatible TVs and multi-channel recording for properly-equipped DVRs. Although the M-Card does improve upon current-gen CableCARDs by delivering access to more than one channel at a time, it is still classified as a version 1.0 device, and therefore won't allow the bi-directional communication necessary for on-demand or pay-per-view goodness. Still, this development is good news for consumers, as it should lead to increased demand for the cards, which will hopefully serve as a kick in the pants for the weak link in the CableCARD chain, whoever it is.[ViaHDBeat] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-24-informatica-pen-features-built-in-wifi-finder.html | 2006-07-24 11:03:00+00:00 | [] | Darren Murph | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Informatica pen features built-in WiFi finder | WiFi detectors are adimeadozen, but this two-faced device adds a second dimension not found on typical sniffers. Informatica's "WiFi Pen," as the name clearly implies, is an ink pen at heart, but also has the ability to alert you of any local wireless networks in range. The lack of a true antenna limits the sniffer's radius to 50 feet, but you get a green, yellow, or red LED indicator to help you quickly determine the signal strength. Priced at $18.95, these won't last long, and according to Informatica's store, these are "available in limited quantities for a limited time only" (which is, of course, the oldest trick in the book to get someone to buy something). Surely it can't be any less effective than theslew of other WiFi locators, but at worst you get a somewhat expensive pen -- infinitely better than anodd looking paperweight-- to draw up a better design.
[ViaBoingBoing] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-24-amd-buying-ati-for-5-4-billion.html | 2006-07-24 13:05:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | AMD buying ATI for $5.4 billion | Aftermonthsofspeculation, including a period when it looked like the supposed deal wassurely dead, AMD has now officially announced plans to buy graphics giant ATI for $5.4 billion. The sale, which is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter pending shareholder, regulatory, and court approval, will result in AMD paying $20.47 (in a mix of cash and stock) for each share of ATI. As you might expect, the news sent ATI's stock price skyrocketing, while shares of AMD dropped due to investor concern that the semiconductor manufacturer is overpaying for its purchase. AMD CEO Hector Ruiz cited his company'sburgeoningrelationshipwith Dellas one of the main reasons for the merger, as the newly-formed entity may now be able to snatch even more Dell business away from rival Intel. Some analysts, however, feel that the deal will have negative consequences in the short term, as it may distract both companies -- already struggling to compete on performance -- from pushing out innovative products in their respective categories. Still, the fact that AMD will now be able to offer integrated graphics solutions to PC manufacturers in the same manner as Intel should be enough to help it gain market share in the long run. Either way, we can't wait to see what the new company has in store for us...[Thanks,Karl] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-24-ilane-the-email-reader-for-your-car.html | 2006-07-24 23:45:00+00:00 | [] | Darren Murph | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | iLane, the email reader for your car | It's probably not the safest practice to to single-handedly control your vehicle while single-handedlychecking your email, but until now there really wasn't an everything-free way to check your inbox while cruising. The iLane, a small device that interfaces with your Bluetooth-enabled handheld, acts as your own personal narrator by notifying the driver of incoming mail, reading your messages in a "natural sounding voice" -- which we'll believe when we hear it -- and replying to your commands. Reportedly, you can even forward, reply, or compose a message via the device, but we're unsure how chaotic your driving environment may end up whilst dealing with the presumably poor voice-recognition assistant. One much appreciated feature is the ability to prioritize messages so those disjointed "male performance supplement" advertisements in your spam folder aren't read before the manager's memo. Although the iLane currently lacks a price and release date, the handsfree approach to email while road-tripping should eliminate a few hazards along the way.
[ViaMobilemag] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-24-moto-surprises-with-3g-motorazr-maxx.html | 2006-07-25 00:45:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Moto surprises with 3G MotoRAZR MAXX | Well, it's not an absolute surprise,we saw this modelas an unnamed prototype floating around last month, but Motorola just officially took the wraps off of their new MotoRAZR MAXX, a purtiful followup to theV3x. At a mere 0.6-inches thick, the MAXX shaves a whole 0.2-inches off of the V3x. The new phone also adds EDGE and HSDPA in addition to the already speedy UMTS, making this handset much more likely to show up in the EDGE-friendly USA. Moto has included Bluetooth 2.0+ Enhanced Data Rate, 50MB of internal storage, a microSD slot for expansion and the snazzy glass front and touch sensitive music controls oflaunch buddy KRZR K1m. The 2.2-inch QVGA display is, of course, always welcome, as are the 2.0 megapixel and VGA cameras the phone has. Also, as a nice embellishment on the lot, the phone's details glow blue when receiving a call. Motorola is planning to release the phone to unknown markets and carriers in this half of 2006, our fingers are duly crossed. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-26-sonic-wildfire-in-development-for-two-years.html | 2006-07-26 14:00:00+00:00 | [] | David Hinkle·Associate Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sonic Wildfire in development for two years?! | Go Nintendo has an interesting snippet taken from issue #6 of the UK Official Nintendo Magazine whereSonic Wildfireis discussed. Apparently in development for two years, the game is based off ofArabian Nightsand will follow Sonic as he adventures through a book and looks to go back to the roots of the title by instilling that sense of speed once again. The game also will see the return of Dr.RobotnikEggman and is to feature even more ways to use the Wiimote than were presented in theE3 demo.Yojiro Ogawa also expressed some interest in bringing another franchise to the Wii in the article. Thinking that it is "fantastic hardware," he would like to bring a new franchise, completely unrelated to Sonic, to the console, utilizing the entire spectrum of capabilities the Wiimote offers. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-26-rezs-trance-vibrator-not-sexual.html | 2006-07-26 22:25:00+00:00 | [] | Ross Miller·Associate Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Rez's trance vibrator, not sexual? | While we try not to oversaturate the 'stiq witharticle after articleon Tetsuya Mizuguchi, this tidbit from a Eurogamer interview made us chortle. The famedRezdeveloper admits that the infamous Trance Vibrator was his idea. "That was kind of a joke," he said, "but a very serious joke. No sexual meaning." Mizuguchi goes on to allude to the philosophy ofsynaesthesia, which was the theme of the game.WhenRezwas released in Japan, it came with the Trance Vibrator -- a device you can plug into the PS2 that vibrates in rhythm with the game (and shakes violently in between the 10 sub-levels of each stage). As Jane from Game Girl Advance noticed, "it seems to haveno other purpose[her emphasis] than to act as a masturbatory aid." Which is why she stuck it down her pants andwrote about it.Mizuguchi claims the intention was for a player to put the vibrator at his or her feet or hands. One time we we were playing the US version ofRezwith the Trance Vibrator in the middle of the coffee table. On the third level, it had shook itself off the table and towards some very concerned friends. Serious joke, indeed ...See Also:1UP gives us our Mizuguchi fixJoystiq Interview: Tetsuya MizuguchiDevelop: What Inspires Mizuguchi |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-27-vote-now-for-g-phoria-2006.html | 2006-07-27 22:55:00+00:00 | [] | Ross Miller·Associate Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Vote now for G-Phoria 2006 | Therecently-raggedG4TV is getting ready for its annual awards show and it has just opened its website for voting. According to the official line, the awards show, set to air August 8th at 6 p.m. EST, will be less sensational:This year will be very different than past years - no big BS Hollywood party or non-gaming celebrities reading poorly written jokes off teleprompters - more lo-fi, by the people for the people... you get the picture. Spike TV clearly has the lame, made for mainstream, disingenuous MTV-like award show covered, we're happy to let them have it.According to Robert Juster, executive producer of G4 Interactive, the show will use the theme of an "election night coverage special -- with a very Colbert Report / Daily Show feel to it." Juster then providedthis videoas an example of the "awesome 'attack' ads" produced by the G-Phoria team.
The video more or less takes a menial attack ad about Hurricane Katrina, medicare, and other common issues, and uses the name of video games (Kingdom Hearts IIandShin Megami Tensei) instead of candidates. If this is what they think makes Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert popular, then they've missed the point. Comedy Central's hour of political humor works because it's witty, clever, and has a point. The humor of this ad was lost somewhere between concept and scriptwriting.The second video we've seen, which plays when you go to the voting page, isn't much better -- the video shows Mt. Rushmore discussing G-Phoria. It actually usesSnoop slang("fo' shizzle") and laughs at the word "duty," again revealing what it thinks itstarget audienceis.The show will go on regardless of your opinion, so if you plan on complaining about the winner at a later date, at least go and vote now so that you can say you contributed. The categories are the usual suspects, and do a good job of highlighting games worthy of praise:Guitar Hero,Shadow of the Colossus,Killer 7, andDigital Devil Saga. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-28-dell-precision-390-workstation-goes-core-2-too.html | 2006-07-28 13:25:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Dell Precision 390 workstation goes Core 2, too | Dell's giving that sweet Core 2 love to more than just theXPS 410andXPS 700desktops; even workstations are getting into the game. As part of the continuingonslaughtofspec-bumpedmachines, the company announced that its Precision 390 tower is now available with four Core 2 Duo options (1.86GHz E6300, 2.13GHz E6400, 2.40GHz E6660, or 2.66GHz E6700) or even the blazing 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800, along with a seemingly-ancient 3.0GHz Pentium 4. The new rig can handle up to 8GB of DDR2 RAM, up to a 7,200RPM, 500GB hard drive, and comes with a number of graphics options from either nVIDIA (the Quadro series) or ATI (either a FireGL V7200 or V3400). If you act now, you can pick up a base configuration (which includes the E6300) for just $800, though going high-end will cost significantly more: a Core 2 Extreme--equipped setup more than doubles the price to $1,790.[Thanks, Michael] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-28-ati-to-release-power-hungry-external-video-card.html | 2006-07-29 01:51:00+00:00 | [] | Darren Murph | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | ATI to release power-hungry external video card? | As microprocessors increase in efficiency and semiconductors diminish in size, the power required for them to function would also decrease -- in an ideal world, anyway. Unfortunately, this hasn't exactly been the case. If we're to believe the rumors,ATI'snext major graphics core, dubbed the R600, will be packed to the brim with pixel pipelines and shader processors to handle the tasks that lie ahead in Windows Vista (if it ever comes out, of course), and, you know, games. But the crazy part here is that the chipset will supposedly require so much power that only an external implementation could provide the level of power necessary to satisfy those demands. An outboard graphics card, however, would one-up internal boards by providing a new level of flexibility. For starters, the same board could power your notebook and desktop, and laptop gamers would have access to bleeding-edge graphics that could turn a relatively weak notebook into a suitable LAN-party machine without the expense of an entirely new rig. Of course, there's still the issue of an external interface that could handle the multi-gigabit bandwidth required to make this system feasible not yet existing, but who knows, maybe those microchip wizards fromAMD can give ATI a handin bringing this to fruition without kicking our kilowatt meters into overdrive -- for now though, ourquad-SLIsetups are doing just fine, thanks.[Thanks, Mack S.] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-30-e3-rip-like-for-reals.html | 2006-07-30 21:12:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | E3: RIP? Like, for reals? | Say it ain't so! One of the most important technology and entertainment trade shows in the world,E3, has apparently been killed -- at least according to Next Generation. Apparently trustworthy sources have been in touch and gave them the word that publishers are getting tired of spending millions of dollars to one up each other in front of the press and retailers, and might prefer to use that money to better their own campaigns and smaller, more focused showsinsteadofgrandstandingon the E3show floor. The firestorm that supposedly led to the impending collapse ofE3may have been brought on by a number of large exhibitors jumping ship, which caused smaller companies to do the same (we'll save the finger pointing for now). Frankly, in our opinion the whole matter is a double edged sword. Yes, massive industry events are often better at sorting companies with and without stellar marketing budgets than the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, but it's also a necessary evil. It's simply not always feasible for hundreds of companies to round up retail professionals and game journalists the world over to show off new product in bits and pieces throughout the year every year -- which is why we have massive shows likeCTIA, E3,CES,CeBIT, etc. Then again, we shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves here; the death of E3 has yet to be confirmed (and might be greatly exaggerated), so we'll have to wait until Monday before we can expect to hear either way from the Entertainment Software Association, the organization we hope won't be burying our second favorite show of like, all time.[ViaJoystiq] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-31-ultimate-av-review-samsung-hl-s5686w-56-720p-dlp.html | 2006-07-31 15:11:00+00:00 | [] | Matt Burns | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Ultimate AV Review: Samsung HL-S5686W 56" 720p DLP | Sometimes we feel the products that are reviewed are the items people canether not afford, or,don't want.But this is not the case with Samsung's mainstream 56-inch DLP -- the HL-S5686W. Ultimate AV has this thing up on its bench, probably a TV stand to be honest, and as given it a thorough run-down. Overall, they like the set and praise its picture. It wasn't as smooth as the reference 55-inch Hitachi plasma, but there is a huge difference in price. This 56-incher can be foundunder $2000even though it MSRPs for $2500. Sure, the DLP has some flaws but many people can look past the O.K. black levels and soft picture for the price. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-07-31-esa-confirms-e3s-dead-long-live-e3expo.html | 2006-07-31 20:49:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | ESA confirms E3's dead, long live E3Expo | Well, word's in from ESA and andE3 is set to be all but castrated-- though not killed entirely. Apparently it will become a kinder, gentler, "more intimate" trade show after E3 sought counseling and found itself to suffer from severe cases of ADD, Tourette's, and harbor deep-rooted antisocial tendencies. But instead of putting the loud and raucous show on meds and calling it a day, they're rebranding it as E3Expo (which would, effectively, stand for Electronic Entertainment Expo Expo, making it E4) for 2007, and calling it a smaller, more focused event because, "It is no longer necessary or efficient to have a single industry 'mega-show.'" Whereas we may or may not agree with that statement, one thing is definitely sure: the days of E3 as we know it are officially over. So to our pals in the media and our readers who lovedkeeping tabs on the madnesscome early May each year, well, we'll always have Pari, erm,Vegas.[ViaNext Generation] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-01-sony-brings-nw-e000-series-to-the-states.html | 2006-08-01 18:59:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony brings NW-E000 series to the States | After a few months of partying down in Japan,Sony's NW-E000 series of thumbdrive DAPs is making its way on over to the States to meet an agingiPod shuffleandcronies. Headlining the series is the 2GB NW-E005, which comes in green, black and violet, and retails for a wallet-friendly $130. Sony also has a $100 1GB version in silver or pink, and a $70 512MB unit in blue to round out the collection. This being Sony, the SonicStage software, Connect Music Store and ATRAC3plus format are all necessary evils, but things do look up from there. Sony has included unprotected MP3, WMA and AAC playback, along with FM radio, one of their sexy (if hard to read) embedded OLED displays, and a 5-mode EQ. The rechargeable batter life is rated at 28 hours when playing ATRAC3plus at 48Kbps, but other formats don't fare so nicely, and the three-minute quick charge only manages three hours of playback. Overall, Sony isn't breaking a lot of ground here, but they are offering a sexy device, a bit of codec support and a dang good deal if you can stand to have the evil tendrils of SonicStage all over your tunes. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-03-the-lake-house-will-be-the-first-movie-to-debut-on-dvd-blu-ray.html | 2006-08-03 12:37:00+00:00 | [] | Richard Lawler·Senior News Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | The Lake House will be the first movie to debut on DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD on the same day | The romantic dramaThe Lake Housestarring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock will be a day-and-date release onHD DVD&Blu-raywith the standard DVD version on September 26. The HD DVD version will be a combo DVD/HD DVD disc meaning only 15GB of storage for the high definition film, while the Blu-ray edition will ship on a single-layer 25GB Blu-ray disc. The space differencehasn't been a problem so faron HD DVD so we don't expect it will be here. No word on any extras yet although we can probably expect the same ones as the standard-def DVD release. The HD DVD version will be priced slightly higher in line with othercombo releases, but have the ability to play in a regular DVD player. Much like the first combo disc released for HD DVD,Rumor Has It, we're really puzzled by the choice of movie but welcome the trend of films coming out on next-generation formats without any delay. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-05-wow-joins-emo-kids-on-myspace.html | 2006-08-05 19:25:00+00:00 | [] | Joystiq Staff | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | WoW joins emo kids on MySpace | If you just so happen to be a MySpace andWorld of Warcraftaddict, then this is your lucky day. Blizzard has established their very own MySpacepagededicated to the most popular MMO round these parts.There are few cool features on the page, including buddy icons, trailers, art, and that kick-assWoWtheme music. It's a pretty cool looking site, and there's just something about that music that feels oh so very soothing.[ViaMMORPG.com] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-07-live-from-wwdc-2006-steve-jobs-keynote.html | 2006-08-07 16:30:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Live from WWDC 2006: Steve Jobs keynote | 8:23AM PST- Alright everybody, we're kicking off over here at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Be sure to book mark this URL, as even though we're doing a little pre-game coverage now, this is where it's all gonna go down when Steve takes the stage at 10:00AM.
8:25AM- Appleprechauns!9:11AM- Still waiting! Someone started a group chat athttp://www.gabbly.com/https://www.engadget.com/2006/08/07/live-from-wwdc-2006-steve-jobs-keynote/if you wanna gossip about the Jobsnote before things get rolling.
Oh dearie us, what could it be?
We sent our intern over to look underneath. That's when two armed Jobs guards stuffed him into a hole.9:25AM- Everyone is crowding up now, we can hear the music. They're letting us in.
9:35AM- Coldplay is on the sound system, lots of journos taking photos, there's a wall of cameras on the left side of the stage. It's the standard Jobsnote setup: Blue curtain to either side of the Apple logo up on stage.
9:42AM -There are a ridiculous number of MacBooks in use in the press section. U2 just came on. We heard a rumor somewhere that Steve digs U2.9:47AM- The VIP section (which we're definitely not in) is all filled up. Now they're letting the developers in. You know, the people the conference is actually for. There's a big banner overhead that reads, "Hasta la vista, Vista."9:48AM- As expected, the Apple Store is down.9:50AM- Just ten minutes to go!
9:53AM- Over the loudspeaker: "Good morning and welcome to WWDC. We ask that you move to the center of each row so that everyone can get a seat. Also at this time as a courtesy to your fellow attendees, please turn off cellphones and other paging devices. Thank you so much."9:58AM- Some guy a few rows in front of us is showing off a "wrapped" black MacBook with the invisible shield. Shiny!
10:01AM- The lights are dimming! Applause. John Hodgman is on the screen: "I have a personal message from Steve Jobs. Just relax that brain for a while. Let's let the Mac users experience compatibility problems. Tend to your compost pile, your poetry, your art. You can help out on Vista, we can use your help there. Whatever else you've been working on, you can stop now. We went to the Big Island together, lots of karaoke."
10:02AM- Now the "Mac" dude has gotten on screen.
Jobs just took the stage in a blur (har). "Good morning and welcome to WWDC 06. Thank you so much for coming. We have a great week planned for you. We have 4200 attendees. Largest WWDC ever."10:03AM- "There are folks here from 48 different countries and all of you are part of three quarters of a million registered Mac developers. This week, what do we have in store for you? 140 sessions on just about everything to do with OS X and 100 hands on labs, including some stuff we'll talk about this morning and over a thousand Apple engineers on hand this week. That's a ratio of 1:4 Apple engineers to attendees."
"Today for the presentation, I've asked three colleagues to help me out. Phil Schiller, Bertrand Serlet, and Scott Forstall, VP of platform experience."
10:05AM- "Update on apple retail." Shows the cube on fifth avenue. "You go down this beautiful glass staircase into the store. I really encourage you to go visit the store, one of 157 Apple retail stores. Last quarter alone we hosted 17 million visitors throughout our stores. For those buying a Mac, 50 percent are new to the Mac. We are picking up lots of new customers." (applause)
10:06AM- "In the past 12 months, we've sold half a billion dollars of your products. Last year, we had our best Mac quarter ever. We shipped 1.33 million Macs last quarter. The growth rate was dramatically stronger than the rest of the industry which means we're gaining market share. Three quarters of the Macs we shipped were Intel-based in the second quarter after shipping our first Apple product."
10:08AM- "One of the great products we introduced was our MacBook. Let's look at our notebook market share. In April, we reached 12 percent in June for retail notebook sales. This is the kind of growth we're seeing. "We announced our first intel products in January. This is Intel CEO Paul Otellini handing us our first wafer in January. In the first two quarters, we transitioned almost all of our products over to Intel.. except one. Today, the Power Mac is going to fade into history. Here to tell us what's going to take its place is Phil Schiller."
10:10AM- Phil: "I'm so excited. I get to be the first one to introduce you to our newest Mac, the Mac Pro. The brand new Mac Pro will be based on Intel's Xeon chips, also known as Woodcrest. Based on Core 2 microarchitecture. Run at speeds up to 3 GHz and include 4 MB shared L2 cache. 127-bit vector engine that's even faster than the Velocity Engine. And they're 64-bit If you compare the performance/watt, you see up to 3x performance per watt than we got in the G5. It's an amazing processor to put in our products, but in every Mac Pro we're going to put two of them. Comparison: G5 quad to Xeon quad. From 54 to 115 increase, 2.1x. From 48 to 76, 1.6x increase. 4.8 to 7.6 From 1.5 to 1.8x faster with applications."
10:13AM- "Xcode is 1.8x faster to build your applications. Each of those chips sits on a 1/33 GHz Front side bus. 4 channel 256-bit memory bus. Four hard drive pays, up to 2 TB of storage. Our most requested feature, we've got two optical drives. FireWire 800 and another USB on the front. 4 full-length PCI stores. Double-wide graphics slot on the bottom.
We have the best enclosure in the business. Inside it's entirely new. New drive bays, snap right in place behind each other."
10:15AM- "8 fully buffered DIMMs, an incredible design and beautiful, simple access to it all. We've had a lot of fun building great configurations for our customers. One standard configuration... Dual 2 2.66 dual-core Xeons, 1 GB, 667 MHz FB-DIMM. 250GB HD. Nvidia GeForce 7300GT, 256 MB and 16x superdrive for $2499. I know what you're thinking. Apple makes the best computers but they're expensive. We're going to bust that myth. Similar configuration about a thousand dollars less than Dell."
10:18AM- "We've really worked on build-to-order. Most customers go this route. You an choose what processor speed you want. You can add up to 16 GB of memory and you can upgrade to an ATI Radion or Quadro FX 4500, Bluetooth and AirPort. Almost 5 million possible configurations. So that's the new Mac Pro, a quad Xeon 64-bit workstation. And the Mac Pro will start shipping... today." (applause). The transition is complete, January 10 to August 7. Just 210 short days."10:19AM- "I really want to thank our engineering team for doing the impossible. The Mac transition is complete. There's another product called Xserve, a 1U server that delivers great value. This is a company called Xtech. They've built a server farm called 'the Aquarium.' If you've made a credit card transaction, chances are your transaction was validated (or not) on Xserve."
10:20AM- "Today we're introducing an entirely new Xserve up to 3 GHz performance. This is an even bigger challenge with a 1U server. In fact, we couldn't even put a dual core G5 in it. So you can imagine the performance increase is incredible. 5.4x integer faster. Depending on the apps you run."
10:21AM- "We get to add redundant power with the space we've saved and up to 2.24 terabytes. Lights out management. And the XServe is entirely built to order with over a million possible configurations. If you compare the latest Dell, Xserve beats them there but busting the myth of more expensive. Xserve is 300 dollars cheaper. New Xserve will be available in October and our transition is really complete. Steve?""10:22AM- Steve back on stage. "So, our transition is complete. Now let's talk about the software that runs on all these Macs. What have we been doing for the last five years? We've been putting out new releases of OS X. And because of the progression of this software, I'm pleased to report that we now have 19 million active Mac OS X users. This is fantastic. We've also gotten a lot of critical acclaim."
"The best and most advanced operating system ever." -Unkie Walt. Tiger is Apple's best-selling software ever.10:24AM- "We had a sixth major release that we don't get much credit for. Tiger on Intel. Porting an OS is is no easy task. And our software team did a great job. They made it look really easy which has enabled this amazing transition. 86 million lines of source code that was ported to run on an entirely new architecture with zero hiccups. Along the way, we created a way to run universal applications that run on PowerPC and Intel. I'm pleased to report that there are more than 3,000 universal applications and we at Apple would like to say, thank you. Thank you, guys. You guys have done a phenomenal job and there are a lot more being announced at the developer conference this week."
10:25AM- "What has our competitor been doing? Well, they've been trying to build a single release that has had many names but is now known as Windows Vista."
10:26AM- Bertrand: "Two years ago, we thought we'd have a little fun with the folks in Redmond. Let's look at Spotlight. Now it's easier to find information on your local disk and on the Web. They did a major innovation. Instead of having the menu on the top right, they have it on the bottom left. Another major technology is RSS. We have a browser that's simple and elegant and added Safari RSS. Guess what? IE7 RSS."
10:28AM- "This is iCal, our calendaring program, and this is Windows Calendar They even tried to copy our color scheme but they didn't get it quite right. This is their logo. You may think I took a Windows logo and added a nice Aqua bubble on top, but no, that's the logo, but underneath it's still Windows. It still has the registry at its core. It still has DLL hell and it still has this well-loved feature called activation. If you can't innovate, you have to imitate, but it's never quite as good. So, to talk about our future, I'm going to turn back to Steven."
10:30AM- "You know, our friends up north spent over $5 billion on R&D, but these days all they seem to be copying is Google and Apple. Shows money doesn't buy everything. Today we want to give you a preview of Leopard. First I want to tell you there are some top secret features that we're keeping close to the chest."
10:31AM- Scott takes the stage: "First feature is support for 64-bit applications. In Tiger, we brought support for 64-bit at the Unix layer. In Leopard, we're taking this a giant leap forward, up through Carbon and Cocoa right to your applications. In Leopard, you can have a fully native 64-bit Carbon application and we did this in a completely compatible 32-bit compatible way. That means that you can run 32-bit and 64-bit applications side by side. None are emulated. 64-bit top to bottom. Number 2: (this is a big one): Time Machine."10:33AM- "When I look on my Mac, I find pictures of my kids that are absolutely priceless. If I were to lose any of these pictures, it would be awful. If I lost all of them, it would be devastated. What does everyone tell you to do? Back it up. And I know what I should do. Who backs up? 26 percent of our users are backing up our files in any way whatsoever. "
10:35AM- "Most of these users manually drag a few files to a CD. They might forget. How many people use automated software to make sure they always back up? 4 percent. Only 4 percent use automated software to make sure that all of our valuable content is being backed up. We plan to change all of that in Leopard with a feature called Time Machine. And we back up everything. All of your files, folders, applications, operating system, which means we can restore everything. If your hard drive dies, you can buy a new one and be right back where you were."
10:36AM- "On top of this, you can restore a la carte. If you're missing just one file, you can restore just that one item. You can back up to a hard drive or a server. You can plug in an external hard drive and start backing up your machine. But the coolest part of Time Machine is because we have a whole new way of backing up and restoring your files. Have you ever had an incident where you accidentally overwrote your files and you wish you could just go back in time? With Time Machine, you can. Have you ever looked at a folder for our presentation, but you remember that it was there? Don't you wish you could just go back in time and bring it back to the present? With Time Machine, you can. Let me show you that now."
10:37AM- "So here we are on the Leopard desktop. Here are the four files I'm working on. Click on Time Machine down on the dock and..." Screen changes to a 3D group of of screens that lets you select from multiple versions of the window. "Notice the stars are moving. Let me go back to yesterday. I can go back two days. I'm not sure where the file is. I can fly back through time and... oh, there it is. So as you can see, this file was deleted some time after June 24th. I can double-click to get a preview of it. Now I just click Restore... done."10:40AM- "It is that easy to go back in time and bring back things. Now Time Machine works with more than just the Finder. [opens up iCal] I'm going to look for... Sonia. I must have accidentally deleted Sonia. Now [opens Time Machine] I can look for Sonia and... there she is. Again, I just click Restore and I can bring her back to the address book. But as I said earlier, the most important thing to me is my photos. Now there's an entire roll missing from a trip I took..."Looks like we may have a crash. People are mumbling. Relaunches, fails, switches machines.
"Bring up iPhoto, fly through time, select the photos, hit restore and restores them all the way back to the present. There they are in iPhoto."10:42AM- "So that.. is Time Machine. We think it is absolutely the best way to back up all of your files and restore everything, but the coolest thing is to go back in time. Number 3, I'll go back to Steve."10:44AM- Steve: "Third feature is the complete package. What do I mean by this? We have some good software that's in beta right now and we have other applications that we only ship on some machines. Boot Camp. There have been over half a million downloads. It will be even better in the beta and it will ship as part of Leopard. Another app is Front Row, it gives access to your music and media. The next generation of Front Row will be built into Leopard. Another example is Photo Booth and it's fantastic. People spend hours on Photo Booth and we've expanded the range of cameras it works with."
10:46AM- Number 4 (this is a big one). "We call it spaces. What is spaces? Spaces is a new way of working on your Mac. You've got a lot of apps going at once. Wouldn't it be great if you could create a space with its own collection of apps? Well, let me show you Spaces now." Brings up mail and Safari. Brings up GarageBand and iTunes. "Whenever I have a few extra minutes, I can bring up my Podcast. I can zip down here and work on my Web site. I can bring up iWeb. And I've created a space for these." It's virtual desktops, for those familiar with the term. Very pretty virtual desktops, but basically what's been on X-based *nix systems for years and years.
10:47AM- Steve flips among GarageBand, mail/Safari. You can move windows across spaces. "Spaces lets me create with collections of apps and super intuitively switch among them instantly. That is Spaces built into Leopard."10:49AM- Number 5, back to Scott: Spotlight."Spotlight was one of the great features of Tiger. We're going to make Spotlight even better in Leopard. First thing we're going to do is enable you to use Spotlight to search other machines." This means that if you're at home and you have several Macs in the house, you can search any of them. We're also adding the ability to search servers and find exactly what you're looking for. Next, advanced search with advanced search. You want Boolean operations. We're adding all of that to Spotlight in Leopard. Next, we're going to make Spotlight a great application launcher. Hit one or two letters and hit return. We're also adding recent items, recent photos, recent PDFs, recent presentations. Often, what you're looking for is right even there without doing a search. That is Spotlight for Leopard."10:52AM- 6 is Core Animation. Core animation lets you dramatically increase the production values of your application. Lets you take a scene and deconstruct it into layers. Text, images, video, OpenGL. "You specify a start state, goal state and key frames optionally. Core Animation will automate the whole animation." Demo.
"This album cover screen saver took 4,000 lines of code to write. In Core Animation, it's 400 lines. You can also move the camera around. You can pick one album and see what text tracks it has. Even this is just scratching the surface." Now he's recreating the iTunes "City of Music" commercial.
It takes 2,000 lines of code to do all of this. "So that is core animation. It gives you a lot of power to add rich animation to your applications."10:54AM- Back to Steve.
Number 7: Universal Access. "Mac OS X is so great that we want everyone to be able to use it. We've made major enhancements to VoiceOver, Braille support, closed captioning support, faster, better navigation."
10:57AM- "When that shipped it was pretty state of the art, but it's still pretty geeky." Now demoing Vista's text to speech. Mispronounces iPod as "i-POed" Steve: "They must not like our words." Now demoing Leopard text to speech. No errors, sounds just a bit tinny, but natural. "One of the things we like to do is speed things up. Listen to it sped up." Does a very good job speaking quickly. "We think we're making some progress here."
10:58AM- 8: Next up is a big one. "We're making some major enhancements to Mail. And anything we can do to make Mail better and more productive is really exciting. I want to highlight some creative things we're doing. We're adding Stationery, Notes and To Do's to Mail."
11:00AM- "You can send emails like this to everybody and it will look like this (standard HTML). We're shipping a lot of templates and you can make your own. Second thing is Notes. I send a lot of notes to myself because my inbox is really where I need to be reminded of things. There's gotta be a better way to do this that doesn't get lost among the others. They show up right in your inbox but there's also a special inbox that coagulates them all together."
"A lot of times we want to keep a To Do list, you can select a note and say make it a To Do and they show up like this. But it's even more powerful than this. I can take any email, any document and say make it a to do. But it's not just Mail. Any application can tie into it and contribute To Do's and view To Do's. So iCal is tied into this. All of your apps can tie into this and have one systemwide To Do service."Showing mail stationery. "You can drop your own photos in here and move things around. Birthday announcements, dinners, you name it."
11:05AM- Shows drag and drop of photos in stationery. Very, very easy to create stationery. Now I want to show you notes. Shows making a note. "Let me show you to do's." Shows checking off a to do and having them show up under to do's."You send the most beautiful email messages you can ever imagine. You can keep track of them in a separate notes inbox. Super easy to turn anything into a to do in mail and it will keep track of everything systemwide. Just three features being added to mail."
11:06AM- 9, back to Scott. It's Dashboard.
11:08AM- "The reason dashboard has been great is because all of you have built so many fantastic other widgets. In fact, there are more than 2500 widgets available today. We're announcing two features to expand that today. First is for you developers and another is for end users. First is Dashcode. All you do is modify templates to produce the widgets you're looking for. We have templates for RSS, podcasts, images, whatever you're looking for. Dashcode is a great visual editor for HTML and CSS. We also ship with a rich parts library with search buttons and a JavaScript source editor and a full Javascript debugger."
11:09AM- "You can set break points. That is Dashcode. The other is Web Clip. We've come up with a way where anyone can turn any part of a Web page into a Widget."
Demo. Brings up Dilbert. "I can find exactly the part of the page I'm interested in, resize the widget and I'm done."[Just talked to our server guy, he says Engadget is serving 500K pages every ten minutes!CORRECTION: He says it's 600K now! - Peter]11:12AM- "Every day this will update and show me the latest of this comic strip. This here is an eBay auction. Let's say I want to track this throughout the day. I can create my own widget, lay it out just like so. I'll apply a theme that makes it look like it was torn out of the Web page... and it's done. We've had requests to turn the top ten widgets from the Apple widget site into a widget. Now you can do it yourself. And if you see one yourself, you can click on it and we'll take you right there. It's all live. Let's say you're interested in the top ten NY Times bestseller list, resize it and done, apply a theme. Let me do one more."11:14AM- "Last one I want to do is webcams and some use QuickTime, some use Java or JavaScript. Now you can turn any webcam into a widget. I can apply a theme, done. Throughout the day, you bring up Dashboard..." (loud applause) "We've just created five live widgets. It's that easy for anyone to create a widget. Create a widget really easily, track it, and close the widget. With Dashcode, we have a way for developers to more easily create widgets and with Web Clip, we can turn any piece of any Web page into a Widget."11:15AM- 10 back to Steve: iChat.
Multiple logins, Invisibility, animated buddy icons, video recording, tabbed chats. Tabs chats, consolidated on the left.11:17AM- "But we want to go even further on this. A lot of our computers now have built in video cameras. No one else is doing this. So the first thing we'd like to do is let you have some fun. First thing we're doing is adding photo booth effects. Second one is more serious -- iChat Theater. Third is Backdrops, which you just have to see to believe."Demo"Let's go to iChat. I don't have a lot of friends. So I'll just request a chat with Phil. Let's start with Photo Booth effects. I can do a Jay Leno look. More Picasso like thing. Performance of this in real time is unbelievable. You look marvelous" (looks at a mirror image of himself) "Let's move on to iChat Theater."11:19AM- "I can go right into iPhoto and show you the pictures right from the vacation. (Slide show starts inside of iChat window). So that's a lot of fun. I can go into Keynote and show you the transitions and effects. Phil, what if you work at an ad agency?"
Now showing the Get a Mac virus commercial, skewed within the iChat window. "Phil, that's fantastic."
11:20AM- "Show us Backdrops. There's no blue screen or green screen behind me. Now I'm at the beach. Or the Taj Mahal. Or in Times Square. If we can do photos..." Shows video loop behind him. "Hey, I found Nemo!" Now shows a roller coaster video behind him. "Thanks, Phil!"[We just hit 700K page views every ten minutes! - Peter]
11:22AM- Phil turns around and waves his hands like he's riding the roller coaster. "We're really excited about this. We think iChat for Leopard will be a grand slam. So this is just ten of the many features that will be in Leopard.""Let's review them:64-bit top to bottomCore animationUniversal accessEnhanced parental controls (which we didn't talk about)We didn't get a chance to talk about iCal but iCal is going multiuserThe complete packageEnhanced mailEnhanced spotlightDashboardYou saw Web Clip and DashcodeToday we are announcing Xcode 3 at the afternoon session.Spaces a whole new way of working with our Macs.And of course, Time Machine."
"Time Machine is going to be a breakthrough in backup and recovery. All of this technology is gonna be in Mac OS Leopard so we have a developer preview that we're going to put in your hands today."
11:24AM- "We plan to get done with Leopard and ship it this coming spring. We think we're going to get it out next spring."
11:27AM- "So that is Mac OS X Leopard. So thank you for coming. We think we have a great week for you, 140 sessions, and over 100 hands-on sessions. Thank you very much and welcome to WWDC06"That's it, show's over!Big big ups to Gavin, Celly, Mike, Christoph, all the peeps at AOL, and, of course, Brian for their expertise in keeping Engadget running under incredible load. You guys are the best! |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-07-apple-mac-pro-hands-on.html | 2006-08-07 19:06:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Apple Mac Pro hands-on | Well, keynote's over, which means we got to go take a look at what Apple introduced today. We didn't see much going on in terms of the operating system, but they did have a couple ofMac Pros on display for us to handle and smudge. Guess all that talk about aradically redesignedtower system isn't going to be, but hey, if you're down with the cheese grater then this is the machine for you. Dual drives, quad processors, loads more ports, plenty of video options -- well, you know what it's got, you just came for the pr0n, and the pr0n you shall get. Click on for loads of pics! |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-07-psa-avoid-this-gamecrazy-training-video.html | 2006-08-07 21:55:00+00:00 | [] | Ross Miller·Associate Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | PSA: Avoid this GameCrazy training video | Joystiq readerWalter Crespotipped us off to this training video for GameCrazy, currently making its rounds on the internet. We are here to warn you about watching this piece; the entire 16-minute test of endurance is grueling and painful. Do yourself a favor and avoid watching the video. Let's explain what you won't be missing:
[Video embedded above for posterity]The video, intended to give GameCrazy employees the inside information on how to sell games, is a mock-up of an ESPN presentation. It opens with two announcers: Keith Croft and Bobby Payne, who call the shots and raise eyebrows to signify their seriousness. The video outlines the five "keys to the game":
1. Hardware: Help gamers (and parents of gamers) pick the right console for them to "keep them coming back for more accessories and games." This section contains a mock-up dialogue between a GC employee and a mother looking to buy a console for her son. She wanted to buy just games, but then realized that her son doesn't own a console! Don't worry if you get lost for a moment, all action will stop and the announcers will cue you in on what's happening.
2. Used Games: GC "employee" Gail convinces a saavyMaddenfan to save $10 by buyin the used title. As the video says, used games are major money for GameCrazy and major value for the customers.
3. MVP: Their special membership. A customer who admits to usually shopping at Best Buy figures he'll give GC a try. Keith wonders aloud if this guy is "a possible big box convert" and eventually he pays the $20 so he can sign up for Saturday'sSoul Caliburtournament.
4. Trades: I might have missed this while trying to find a screwdriver to insert into my frontal lobe. I think it was just mixed in with the rest.
5. Pre-orders: Generic Girl #1 comes in looking to pre-order the latestFinal Fantasybut doesn't want to pay money. Fortunately, she has virtual money by merits of past trade-ins on her MVP account. The guy pre-orders the game for her, gets her to buyKingdom Hearts,and totally gets her phone number, dude!
And let's not forget, through all this, there is Zelda Scott.Who is Zelda Scott? The on-the-floor correspondent helping Croft and Payne talk to the GameCrazy employees presented. She must think she has some grasp on pop culture. Let's take a look at some of our favorite phrases:
• "They can't hate on our used games."
• "Bomb-diggity!"
• "Gail is getting extremely jiggy with it by going for the MVP."
• Give it up G-Unit, you showed some mad skills there."
• "Krunk!"
• "Tru dat, girl. [To Croft and Payne] Homeslices?"
• "Bling Bling!"
... and that's just a sampler.Don't forget to check out the very last scene after the credits roll, at around the 16:10 mark. Scott delivers a very painful rendition of "Rapper's Delight." |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-08-f-e-a-r-multiplayer-now-the-low-low-price-of-zero.html | 2006-08-08 22:15:00+00:00 | [] | Joystiq Staff | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | F.E.A.R. multiplayer now the low low price of zero | Sierra announced today that their award-winning PC first-person shooterF.E.A.R.will now have its multiplayer component be available for free to gamers. RenamedF.E.A.R. Combat, anyone with a good Internet connection and rig to play the game, will be able to download it at no cost starting Thursday, Aug. 17.The entire thing will be a complete package including "all the updates, additional official maps and additional official game modes all in one downloadable file."Can we get a "hell yeah!" for this? Good job Sierra on building up some brand loyalty.Check after the break for the full press release.
SIERRA ANNOUNCES F.E.A.R. COMBATF.E.A.R. Multiplayer to be made available for free.LOS ANGELES, CA – (August 8th, 2006) – Sierra Entertainment today announced that the multiplayer component from the award winning PC title F.E.A.R.™(First Encounter Assault Recon), has been renamed F.E.A.R. Combat, and will be made available to the public as a free download on Thursday August 17th, 2006.F.E.A.R. Combat is the complete multiplayer component of F.E.A.R. and includes all the updates, additional official maps and additional official game modes all in one downloadable file. F.E.A.R. Combat users will be able to play against the owners of the retail version of F.E.A.R. as well as the other F.E.A.R. Combat users.F.E.A.R. Combat features:
• 10 Multiplayer Game modes.
• 19 Multiplayer Maps.
• 12 different weapons.
• Punkbuster support for anti cheat support.
• The capability to download user generated content.
To play F.E.A.R. Combat, consumers simply go to www.joinfear.com and register to obtain their free, Combat keycode. When the file is made available for download on Aug 17th 2006, consumers can install, enter their keycode, and get ready to join F.E.A.R. Combat!To get more information on F.E.A.R. Combat, please visit www.whatisfear.com or www.fearfans.com.F.E.A.R. Combat will be available for download on August 17th 2006.About Vivendi GamesVivendi Games (www.vivendigames.com) is a global developer, publisher and distributor of multi-platform interactive entertainment. The company is the leader in the subscription-based massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPG) category, holds leading positions in the PC, console, handheld and mobile games markets, and is an emerging player in casual online games. Vivendi Games' two principal studios and publishing labels include Blizzard Entertainment, headquartered in Irvine, CA, the creator of World of Warcraft®, Diablo®, StarCraft®, and Warcraft®; and Sierra Entertainment, headquartered in Los Angeles, which includes Radical Entertainment, Swordfish Studios, High Moon Studios, and Massive Entertainment. Sierra's IPs include Crash Bandicoot®, Spyro The Dragon®, Empire Earth®, SWAT®, Darkwatch™, Timeshift™, Ground Control® and Leisure Suit Larry®. Vivendi Games is also home to Vivendi Mobile Games, publishing games for the emerging mobile market, and Sierra Online, dedicated to publishing casual games for online play and distribution on all platforms. Vivendi Games maintains strategic relationships with industry leading content partners, including Universal Music Group, NBC Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, and Ludlum Entertainment. The company has 16 offices around the world conducting business in 75 countries. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-10-more-mylo-deets-emerge-linux-is-under-the-hood.html | 2006-08-10 19:50:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | More mylo deets emerge, Linux is under the hood | Now that we've recovered from the initial surprise ofSony's mylo announcement, we're starting to get a few more details on its functionality. Turns out the teeny device is powered by an unspecified version of embedded Linux (possibly from Wind River), with a graphics and application framework provided by Trolltech's Qtopia platform. There's also Java Virtual Machine support, which seems to give homebrewers plenty of options for creating apps for the device -- if Sony hasn't locked things down too tightly. As for that QVGA 2.4-inch screen, Sony is packing in MP4 video support, so ready-to-go videos shouldn't be hard to find. There's also MP3, ATRAC and WMA to round out format support. While the mylo dodges that mainNokia 770bullet by packing a QWERTY keyboard, Sony's device suffers from a hefty pricetag for its younger target audience, a notable omission of AIM and Windows Live Messenger, and a lack of explicit gaming or 3rd party support. Still, those WiFi and Linux specs hint at a lot of potential, so we're sure that this thing can manage to be a bit more than anotherSkype handset. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-12-universal-binary-of-flash-player-9-released.html | 2006-08-12 15:00:00+00:00 | [] | David Chartier | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Universal Binary of Flash Player 9 released | Adobe has cranked out aUniversal Binary of Flash Player 9for Intel Mac consumption. Strangely, a PowerPC-only build is still available on the download page, though Insanely Mac isreportingthat it's an earlier build.If you're interested in what's actually new in this latest version, check outAdobe's pagewith the full details. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-14-xbox-360-hd-dvd-drive-to-cost-just-200.html | 2006-08-14 22:38:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Xbox 360 HD DVD drive to cost just $200? | Well, well, isn't this a pleasant surprise. With prices for Microsoft's impendingXbox 360 HD DVD add-onhaving being quotedas high as $500, it's certainly reassuring to hear DigiTimesconfirm reportsthat the movie-playing optical drive will cost just $200 at its holiday release. Now it's not clear if this will be the price for stand-alone units or those that come as part of a "value" bundle (perhaps the one thatRichard Teversham recently referred to?), but either way, the low cost would definitely help reinvigorate interest in the 360 in the face of fresh competition from Sony and Nintendo. So please, Microsoft, do us cash-strapped gamers a favor and make this happen -- we promise that we won't even feel too guiltyif you're taking a huge losson the hardware.[ViaHDBeat] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-14-what-happend-to-robocop-on-blu-ray.html | 2006-08-15 03:14:00+00:00 | [] | Ben Drawbaugh | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | What happend to Robocop on Blu-ray? | Blu-ray fans were expecting to have one of the best weeks yet, only to have half of the titles removed. First there was Robocop which seems like it may have been a blessing in disguised according to some pre-released reviews. Officially it seems that this was the first Blu-ray title to get pushed back because MGM is getting helpfrom Fox with distribution instead of Sony. This combined with 3 other titles that were delayed includingBlack Hawk DownandSense & Sensibility.The Big Hit is the only delayed title with a new date of Sept 19th 2006.We have no idea what is going on here, but at this rate there isno way Blu-ray will take the content lead from HD DVD.Robocop delayedOther Blu-ray delays |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-15-mcgee-only-real-next-gen-is-wii.html | 2006-08-15 14:40:00+00:00 | [] | Joystiq Staff | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | American McGee: Only real next-gen is Wii [update 1] | Eurogamerquotesgame designerAmerican McGeein an upcoming interview byCVGas saying, "The only truly next-gen console out there is the Wii. Everything else is just a video card and processor upgrade."McGee, whose next gameBad Day LAhits the Xbox and PC in a few months, says Nintendo will "capture the hearts" of gamers while "Microsoft and Sony stab each other in the neck" as they compete over market share.We've heard one developer pick the 360 over the PS3 before, but this is the first time we've seen someone in the biz say that the Wii is theonlystep up to next-gen.[Update: Here's the CVGlink. The full interview will appear tomorrow. Thanks, JohnH259] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-17-bioware-announces-new-nwn-module.html | 2006-08-18 01:00:00+00:00 | [] | Alan Rose | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | BioWare announces new NWN module | Even though Atari has officiallydroppedsupport for the originalNeverwinter Nights, the mod community is still thriving. In fact, the database of fan-created modules is over 4,000 strong, according toNWN's developer, BioWare. And if you thoughtInfinite Dungeonswas the last of the professionally-developed modules, a small Vancouver-based game studio is serving up another 25-30 hr. adventure in the Forgotten Realms.Ossian Studios is comprised of BioWare veterans and RPG enthusiasts, and while they had originally plannedDarkness over Daggerfordas a premium module release, this lengthy single-player campaign is now available as a free download at theNeverwinter NightsVault. Check out BioWare's interview with Ossian co-founder Alan Miranda, and let us know what you think ofDaggerford.See also:
• A touch of RTS inNeverwinter Nights 2
• NWN2: new interview with Urquhart, more screens
• NWNmod creator on Atari,Infinite Dungeons |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-18-archos-604-30gb-portable-media-player-reviewed.html | 2006-08-18 14:25:00+00:00 | [] | Darren Murph | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Archos 604 30GB portable media player reviewed | It appears that Archos has got this portable media player gig down pat, as the30GB 604, unveiled as an affordablereplacementfor the well-receivedAV500, has done quite a commendable job building itself a bit of buzz. Rather than altering too much of a good thing, Archos decided to just tweak the 604, adding several meaningful extras while removing a few advanced features in order to get that price tag down to near-bargain basement levels. The folks over at CNET were able to get some face time with the new PMP, and in similar fashion to its predecessor, received an excellent rating. Although the 604 isn't the most pocket-friendly unit reviewers had seen, they felt that increasing the screen size from 4.0 to 4.3-inches (and improving its durability / performance) was well worth it. The brushed metal look must have really struck a chord as well, as this sexy sidekick was touted as being "pretty hot" in regards to its design. One feature that definitely made the review crew sweat was the nifty kickstand, something sorely absent on the AV500 (and its "main competitor," theCowon A2). The controls and well-developed GUI left a very positive impression, and its ability to play back all types of media ranging from AVI, MPEG-4, PlaysForSure WMA and WMV, MP3, and WAV garnered even more praise. But, as expected, not everything was entirely peachy, as those looking to record video / audio right out of the box won't find the tools they need. Archos apparently made a purposeful omission and left the DVR gear as an optional accessory, just in case some folks didn't want to pony up the extra $100 for the at-home convenience. It was noted that the unit performed well when paired up with the Archos DVR Station, and the staff was more than satisfied with the 14+ hours of audio / 4 hours of video use reportedly on tap via the removable battery. If you haven't caught the drift at this point, here's the skinny: theArchos604 is a worthy update to the respectable AV500, and if you're looking to snap up a PMP (and maybe add recording capabilities down the road), it's not a bad way at all to spend $350. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-18-gilligans-island-coming-to-hd.html | 2006-08-18 16:03:00+00:00 | [] | Matt Burns | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | "Gilligan's Island" coming to HD? | Would you watchGilligan's Islandif it was in HD? We would. You may very well have the chance as a Warner Bros. executive indicated a few days ago that this comedy along with some other classic shows are going to be re-mastered in HD. It's a classic show that was recorded on film so the transfer to high-def would be seamless. Kind of like how Hogan's Hero's on HDNet looks so good. Picking up old classic shows and re-broadcasting 'em in high-def is somethingwe hoped would happen a while ago.It just makes sense as most studios have vast library of classic film based shows that while they are older are still good. Wouldn't it be nice to have an HD TV Land where you could peepThe Brady Bunch, Mork and Mindy, Bewitchedand then even late at night,The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson? Sure, it would take some work but we are sure many of you would agree that some of these shows are worth watching then a good variety of non-HD prime time TV programs.Would you be interested in watching classic TV Land shows in high-def? |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-20-a-comprehensive-list-of-famitsu-review-scores.html | 2006-08-20 14:49:00+00:00 | [] | Jason Wishnov | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | A comprehensive list of Famitsu review scores | Famitsu, the most popular gaming magazine in Japan, is notorious for their uncompromising and strictly regulated review system. Indeed, only six games in their history have ever received a perfect 40/40 review score.Since their opinion is highly valued, a couple people over atGoNintendohave compiled a comprehensive list of the top-scoring DS games on the market. First place belongs solely toNintendogs, picking up one of those coveted 40/40 scores, followed byMeteoswith a 38/40, and thenAnimal Crossing: Wild Worldat 37/40. For a (very) full list, click that underlined blue clicky thing at the bottom of the post.(If you were wondering, the six perfect scores belong to (in chronological order):The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,Vagrant Story, Soul Calibur,The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker,Nintendogs, andFinal Fantasy XII.) |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-20-next-gen-nvidia-and-ati-gpus-to-require-200-watts.html | 2006-08-20 18:32:00+00:00 | [] | Darren Murph | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Next-gen nVidia and ATI GPUs to require 200 watts? | So we've got CPUs moving towards moreefficientdesigns, a (somewhat) general consensus that there should beenergy-saving methodsapplied wherever possible, and yet somehow we see a steady increase in power usage from graphics processing units each time they're updated. It doesn't take a circuitry engineer (although that qualification could be helpful) to understand that higher clock speeds lead to higher frame rates, at least generally speaking, and companies like nVidia and ATI have apparently been taking the high road in order to boost those FPS figures. Current top-end graphic cards can easily suck down 100 watts (or more) when under full load, but it appears that requirement could nearly double -- the two graphical big shots are reportedly looking to offer powerhouse cards that almost need to be wired straight in to the power station to function. Japan's PC Watch has reported that the forthcoming G80 from nVidia may consume up to 175 watts, while ATI's R600 could demand an unprecedented 200 watts to produce its eye-candy. While these figures may be a bit staggering, they aren't exactly shocking -- we've already heard rumors that ATI's next major chipset may be released in anexternal form, at least partially for power-related reasons. While we can't say for sure what's happening behind the tightly-sealed doors at nVidia orATIAMD, we hope someone in there is paying attention to these concerns, because we're not exactly cool with needing a separate power strip (and an additional occupation) to feed our gaming habits. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-21-the-onyx-synaptics-clearpad-concept-phone.html | 2006-08-21 14:53:00+00:00 | [] | Peter Rojas | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | The Onyx - Synaptics' ClearPad concept phone | This is totally on the concept design tip and so won't ever actually be produced, but check out the Onyx, a prototype handset that Synaptics and Pilotfish put together that uses Synaptics' new ClearPad touch screen. We're still not totally sold on button-less phones -- we crave the tactility -- but the Onyx lets you do stuff like close an app by drawing an "X" over it with your finger, send messages by swiping them off the screen, and answer a call simply by placing the phone against your cheek. Don't expect to ever actually get your hands on the Onyx, but Synaptics is planning to make ClearPad available to manufacturers around the end of the year, so there's a decent chance that phones like it could start showing up within a couple of years.[Via Core77] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-22-ridge-racer-2-intro-and-gameplay-video.html | 2006-08-22 17:30:00+00:00 | [] | Andrew Yoon·East Coast Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Ridge Racer 2 intro and gameplay video | There's something about the PSP and its great affinity towardsCG women. TheRidge Racersseries is famous for the CG model Reiko Nagase posing seductively on top of the cars. The upcomingRidge Racers 2is no different, as it continues the tradition.This videoshowcases some of the gameplay from the upcoming sequel and also shows you the sleek intro sequence as well. The game hasn't been announced for US release yet, but will be availablein Japanin September.[ViaIGN] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-23-amazon-com-adds-callcenter-for-tv-buyers.html | 2006-08-23 20:05:00+00:00 | [] | Richard Lawler·Senior News Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Amazon.com adds callcenter for TV buyers | Next time you're looking for advice onbuying a new HDTV, Amazon wants you to consider their customer service department, targeted at people buying $1,000+ television sets. While we recommend actually looking at the displays you're considering and even hooking up your desired accessories if possible, if that isn't an option you may want to check this out. You can access the service by a button located on the page of certain TVs and have a representative call you. The service is headed up by a former employee of Best Buy's ministore Magnolia. Amazon is even looking to branch out into custom installation, it looks like retailers are certainly looking to take advantage ofHDTV confusionby providing information. We certainly hope that information is a more accurate than pure sales hype, but that remains to be seen and besides, that70-inch LCDwould definitely fit through your doorway, no need to measure. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-23-apple-and-creative-settle-apple-forks-out-100m.html | 2006-08-23 21:47:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Apple and Creative settle, Apple forks out $100m | If you can't beat 'em, sue 'em, right? That's the American way, after all, and it's serving Singapore-based Creative very well. As some may well remember, not even four months agoCreative filed suit against Applefor violating their "Zen patent," which pertained to a hierarchical menu system for portable media players;Apple countersued Creative, and then in the true Jobsian style of raining down on his foes,launched a second suitpertaining to icons and data display and entry in such portable devices. (Apparently two other suits also went down behind the scenes.) Guess those didn't work too well, as today Apple announced they'd be handing over $100,000,000 US (would you look at all those zeroes?) to Creative to license the "technology" outlined in the Zen patent -- the exact amountCreative pledged to spend on advertisingagainst the iPod in 2005. It also looks like Apple scored a deal wherein they'll recoup some of those costs if and when Creativeextortsleverages the patent on other media player companies. But perhaps the most bizarre bit of all, Creative seems to be jumping right into bed with Apple now that their spat's over, and is now officially aMade for iPodprogram partnerwith iPod accessories expected this year. This abusive relationship is starting to turn a little weird, like divorced parents getting back together or something -- can't we just go back to the days when the two hadnothingbutvitriolandrecriminationfor one another? Still, gotta love the vaguely optimistic spin Jobs put on the sitch: "Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent..." Yeah, we'd say you're damned right, Steve.[Thanks, pspspsp, Ryan, and Roopesh] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-23-eas-launch-lineup.html | 2006-08-24 03:45:00+00:00 | [] | Alisha Karabinus | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | EA's launch lineup | Before we break out the goods, let's just clarify: these are launchwindowtitles. Meaning they'll come out within the first few months of the Wii's release. They may or may not be taking up shelf space on launchday. That said, Electronic Arts is supporting the Wii launch window with six titles, including a few offerings from wildly popular franchises likeMaddenandTiger Woods PGA Tour. These titles were already announced for the Wii, but EA confirmed all six for the launch window at in Leipzig.The full list:
• Godfather
• Harry Potter
• Madden NFL 2007
• Need For Speed: Carbon
• SSX 5
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-25-sony-claims-battery-recalls-will-cost-them-200m.html | 2006-08-25 06:07:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony claims battery recalls will cost them $200m | In a brief but pointedstatement by Sony, hygienically entitled "Statement Regarding Sony's Support of Apple's Recall of Lithium Ion Battery Packs Used in Apple Notebook Computers," the mass manufacturer of defective batteries announced that the recalls we've been hearing so much about in the past few days are due to "microscopic metal particles in the recalled battery cells [that] may come into contact with other parts of the battery cell, leading to a short circuit within the cell. Typically, a battery pack will simply power off when a cell short circuit occurs. However, under certain rare conditions, an internal short circuit may lead to cell overheating and potentially flames." Ok, got it, we're with 'em, especially on the bit where they announced they're taking additional measures to ensure the safety of future batteries manufactured. So, howsabout putting a pricetag on all this carnage, eh? Well, betweenApple's andDell's six or so million units that are about to be recalled, it's going to set Sony back between ¥20 and ¥30 billion, or in dollar terms, between $134.2 and $201.3 million (or in per-unit terms, that's roughly $22 and $33 per battery). Now that, dear friends, is a spicy damned meatball.P.S. -Ok, so howsabout that markup on those batteries? Even after shipping, support costs, and costs per unit, your $100-$150 battery is still only going to cost Sony as much as $33 per. As if we weren't already angry enough.[Thanks, Tim] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-25-fcc-reveals-toshiba-1089-and-its-looking-a-whole-lot-like-a.html | 2006-08-25 13:21:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Zune revealed by FCC as "Toshiba 1089" | Well, here's a bit of a surprise: a wireless PMP just showed up on the FCC, featuring a 30GB HDD, FM tuner and a strangely familiar 3-inch screen. And it ain't being manufactured by Microsoft. Instead it looks like Microsoft got theirgood pal Toshibato produce theZune, which not only saves Microsoft the job of gearing up some production lines for the thing, but seems to keep them from stepping on at least one PlayForSure licensee's toes. Things get more interesting from there, since the documentation refers to those other heavily bandied code names: "Pyxis" and "Argo." From the looks of things, Pyxis seems to be the name for the network which Zune devices will use to share content, since in the "DJing Content" section it states that "Pyxis allows you to stream music to up to 4 other Pyxis devices." A bit more confusing, however, is that "You can invite other Argo members that you meet to be your friends wirelessly." Of course, it's always likely that they hadn't gotten all the codenames smoothed out by the time they wrote that up, but it's clear that the Zune player as we know it is only a small part of the overall "Zune" plan. It's also clear that Toshiba is part of the party, so we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for any other manufacturers who might be hanging on to Microsoft's coat tails here. Keep reading to see the Zune cracked open, tested, and completely dissected...[ViaMobileWhack; thanksSandeep] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-25-lazy-hubo-gets-a-segway.html | 2006-08-25 15:15:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Lazy Hubo gets a Segway | What's the world coming to? It's bad enough that everyone moves from here to there in their cars, motorcycles,personal helicopters, and human transportation devices (except for us -- we sit in front of the computer for 15 hours a day), but now it seems that the sedentary lifestyle is so prevalent, even robots are demanding their own set of wheels. You may remember Professor Oh Jun-ho'sAsimo-like humanoid botHubo(probably better known when he sports the head of Einstein and transforms intoAlbertHubo); well now Hubo has apparently gotten tired of walking around all the time, and has tasked the professor with acquiring aSegwayfor him to zip around on. At this point Hubo is unable to board the Segway without some help (geez, how lazy can you get?), but a software upgrade will supposedly provide him with the necessary motivation. See, you thought that our future robotic overlords would be shuffling around slowly while they round us up to toil in the silicon mines; in fact, they'll be corralling all humans at several miles-per-hour from the comfort of their Kamen-built scooters. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-25-20-000-posts-yup-20-000-posts.html | 2006-08-25 15:46:00+00:00 | [] | Peter Rojas | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | 20,000 posts? Yup, 20,000 posts! | Damn, have we really hit 20,000 posts? We can scarcely believe it ourselves, but this post right here marks the 20,000th time we've posted something to Engadget. Crazy, huh? Big thanks to everyone out there for keeping up with our daily onslaught of gadgets, we truly appreciate your attention. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-25-fairuse4wm-strips-windows-media-drm.html | 2006-08-25 15:48:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | FairUse4WM strips Windows Media DRM! | So far as the yet very quiet forums are claiming, a new app called FairUse4WM can be used to strip Windows Media DRM 10 and 11 (i.e. PlaysForSure, but not WM DRM 9). Yes, yes, we know,we've heard this song and dance before. But before we proceed, let's just be totally clear on how the system works: providers like Napster and Yahoo Music Unlimited provide subscription service for unlimited access to Windows Media DRMed files; stop paying the fee, stop getting access to the files -- but you already knew all this. We tried FairUse4WM and we can verify that it quickly and easily stripped the DRM from our Napster To Go tracks, and made them freely available to play on our Mac (which, of course, has Flip4Mac installed). In other words, it's a simple, apparently lossless, one-step method for making your files playable after you're no longer paying fees on your subscription service. The app didn't work on our Vongo videos, but we can verify with all certainty that yes, Windows Media DRM can now be easily and quickly stripped from PlaysForSure media services. Now watch as Microsoft shuts down the forums and runs damage control in order to prevent an digital media entire platform from collapsing. Click on for a couple more pics of the app in action!P.S. - Kinda goes without saying but we take absolutely zero accountability for what you may do with FairUse4WM, ok?[Thanks, Frank]
Now here's that same track we just downloaded from Napster playing on Quicktime (with Flip4Mac, which, of course, doesn't support WM DRM.) |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-25-asus-officially-introduces-r2h-umpc.html | 2006-08-25 16:19:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Asus officially introduces R2H UMPC | We're not entirely sure how much more official theAsus R2H UMPC neededto get, but they're, um, really announcing the handheld computer with the 7-inch screen, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR, 802.11a/b/g, fingerprint reader, drive options up to 60GB, and an anemic 900MHz Celeron M ULV today. Still no official release date or price, but if the rest of the UMPCs are between $800 and $1300 (or more), you can definitely expect the Asus device to be at the top of that scale.[ViaJKOTR] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-28-steerable-wifi-cantenna.html | 2006-08-28 23:10:00+00:00 | [] | Donald Melanson·Guest Contributor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Steerable WiFi cantenna | Despite maybe, possibly beingillegalin some parts (but not many), fearless DIY-er Adrian Smith has gone forth and out-MacGyvered all othercantennamakers with his steerable, WiFi-sniffing rig. Using the requisite tin can, along with a PIC microcontroller and a couple of servos, the cantenna is able to be controlled by a custom Visual Basic program that can automagically sniff out the strongest wireless signals and zero in on them (complete with satisfying bzzzzz, whizzzz sound effects, we're sure). Unfortunately, he hasn't provided detailed step-by-step plans for the more engineering-challenged among us, so you'll need some reasonable skills of your own to put one of these to use "sharing" your neighbors' bandwidth.[ViaHack a Day] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-29-hymn-is-back-fairplay-on-itunes-6-finally-cracked.html | 2006-08-29 06:37:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | QTFairUse6: is Hymn finally back to strip FairPlay on iTunes 6? | Remember Hymn? You should, back in the day (like, um,2004) it allowed you to strip the FairPlay DRM right off iTunes Music Store bought files just like that; well, it's been a long time in coming, but a new app called QTFairUse6 looks like it can now be used (with some amount of difficulty) to dump iTunes version 6.0.4 - 6.0.5 files of their chastely protection. It's not quite as slick asFairUse4WMor anything, but if you're not afraid to get your hands dirty with a little python up in this piece, you can get yours now; if not, it shouldn't be too long before our man Igor S.'s next-gen method for circumventing Apple's copy protection methods makes its way into a nice, neat little graphical interface all the Macs in the house are sure to adore. And, of course, then it's not too much longer afterthatwhen Apple blocks out this hack of Hymn and moves on to the next FairPlay iteration. DRM man, it's like a freaking möbius strip of consumer hurt. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-08-31-janus-project-pc-can-scan-300-wifi-networks-at-once.html | 2006-08-31 11:31:00+00:00 | [] | Cyrus Farivar | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Janus Project PC can scan 300 WiFi networks at once | You've heard ofblack hat hackersandwhite hat hackers, but what about leather hat hackers? Meet the first: Kyle Williams. This creative genius has built the ultimate network hacking PC, the "Janus Project," which can focus its eight WiFi cards to break your standardWEPencryption in under five minutes. Beyond that, it can sniff 300WiFinetworks simultaneously, store and continuously encrypt all the data with AES 256-bit keys. In addition, the Janus Project has an instant off switch, which requires a USB key that has a 2000-bit passkey and a separate password to regain access. What's under the hood? Williams packed anUbuntu Linuxmachine running on a 1.5GHz VIA C7 processor with an Acer 17-inch screen into that snazzy little rugged yellow box. Oh, and the closed case is waterproof too, in case you need to transport Janus Project on a whitewater raft to your next hacking hotspot. We don't doubt someone will.[ViaThe Raw Feed] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-01-bigfoots-killer-network-interface-card-reviewed.html | 2006-09-01 05:41:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Bigfoot's Killer Network Interface Card reviewed | We were never ones to stand in the way ofpure gamer PC overkill, and Bigfoot'sKiller Network Interface Card(NIC) fits that bill nicely. They've managed to take a commodity PC component and build $280 PCI card around it, complete with 64MB of DDR RAM and a 400MHz processor. Cries of extortion and vaporware have been leveled, but now that IGN have got their hands on the device, they seem to think it's worth the hyperbole. One thing they were careful to point out before firing it up is that the Killer NIC runs Linux, so that processor and RAM can be put to more use than just routing your frags -- a firewall or a bit of anti-virus software could reside right on the card to check over data before it even gets to your PC, and IGN figures a BitTorrent client would be possible, allowing for full-speed gaming while you use any remaining bandwidth for downloading thatdev release of Leopard. As far as actual gaming performance, IGN's preliminary results were fairly impressive. The card bumped the framerate on the bundled F.E.A.R. from 74 to 86 fps, and the ping went from an average of 67ms to 45ms. If you're seriously considering dropping the cash you might want to wait around for a bit more scientific testing, but so far things aren't looking too good for Mr. Videogame's budget and his killjoy Excel spreadsheet of doom. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-01-pokemon-diamond-pearl-special-edition-ds-lite.html | 2006-09-01 15:25:00+00:00 | [] | David Hinkle·Associate Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Pokemon Diamond/Pearl special edition DS Lite | Going on sale at the Pokemon Center in Japan on September the 28th to commemorate the release ofPokemon Diamond/Pearl, we have to say this looks muchbetterthan the limited editionWinning ElevenDS Lite. Heck, it looks better than thelastlimited editionPokemonDS Lite as well. The price weighs in at 16, 800 yen, or around $143 US.A closer look at the graphic can be seen after the break. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-01-bully-no-more-call-it-canis-canem-edit.html | 2006-09-01 15:35:00+00:00 | [] | Ross Miller·Associate Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Bully no more! Call it "Canis Canem Edit" in Europe | Speaking toEuroGamer, Rockstar has announced that they have changed the name of their infamous schoolyard game from the controversy-attractingBullyto the tamer, more culturedCanis Canem Edit, or "Dog Eat Dog" in Latin. While not confirmed, we suspect one of the most prominent reasons is that it's much harder to write a clever protest chant with a six-syllabled Latin phrase.The name change will not affect the launch date;Canis Canem Editis still planned for an October release for PlayStation 2.According to CVG, the title is only changed in Europe. Why they wouldn't bring the title overseas, where the controversy is even more pronounced, is currently beyond. We'll try to get a hold of Rockstar and find out.Continue reading for a recap of the story so far:
In May 2005, Rockstar announced a title calledBully, "the brutally funny debut title from Rockstar Vancouver" where you play a troublesome schoolboy who, among other things, "stand up to bullies" (according tothe press release).But a game from theGrand Theft Automakers calledBullymust be the end of Western Civilization. Anti-game activist Jack Thompson has mentioned the game in nearly every press release about the game, decrying it as a "Columbine Simulator." Despite a dearth of information, anti-bully group Peaceaholicsprotested.Rockstar goes very quiet. Then suddenly last month, the company gave mainstream press access to Bully, and newspapers likeUSA TodayandNY Timeswrote about the game's "relative tameness" and punishment system that keeps the protagonist from bullying others.As you know, reality often has a liberal bias, so the mainstream coverage did little to satiate the Peaceaholics, whocontinue to protest(despite showing confusion to the game's content), or Jack Thompson, who last month filed a lawsuit to get an early copy of the game (that never works, trust me). |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-01-holmdel-bell-labs-facility-update-it-stays.html | 2006-09-01 23:16:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Holmdel Bell Labs facility update: it stays! | Well here's a good bit of news to kick your weekend off with. Remember that piece we didprofiling the Bell Labs Holmdel Facilitythat was looking like it was about to be razed by a real estate development firm which recently purchased the property? Well, after the public outcry that followed in the blogosphere and abroad (which apparently resulted in a deluge of calls, letters, and emails), it looks like the development firm, PREI, isn't only going to keep a huge portion of the site, they're going to do more to further its historic value. At a Holmdel Community Center meeting attended by Joe Ferrara (who originally tipped us off to the situation), PREI announced that the landscape, oval, tower and two of the original Phase I Eero Saarinen-designed buildings will remain (including the 80-foot tall center lobby), in addition to developing a historic library to highlight Bell Labs' artifacts and paraphernalia related to the facility. Also being built are five new adjacent buildings (in orange, above), though two of the original Phase II buildings (and two wings that were added later) will be demolished. Kinda sucks the facility couldn't be left entirely intact, but they're keeping the core of the Labs and Saarinen's work -- which is really all we can ask for -- and are adding to the office space without taking away from the pastoral surroundings. Apparently the new tenants are expected by 2009, and we can only hope they'll appreciate their digs and live up to the Holmdel legacy of innovation.P.S. -To anyone who wrote, called, or TPed PREI, we thank you, and technology history thanks you. Have a nice Labor Day! |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-04-nokias-lamour-collection-adds-three-sort-of.html | 2006-09-04 18:27:00+00:00 | [] | Chris Ziegler | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Nokia's L'Amour Collection adds three, sort of | True, the new 7390 is the first 3G capable phone to grace Nokia'sL'Amourseries of fashion phones, but other than that, we're not too sure what the fuss is about. The 7360 is being re-announced here, perhaps on account of its new color and design options, and the 7373 seems to be a dead ringer for its older sibling, the 7370, with the exception of a upgraded camera. Nokia is calling "tribal art and ethnic decoration" the inspiration for their latest designs, which will be offered in several colors (for those looking for something slightly, shall we say, less pink) when shipments begin this fall.
As we mentioned, the 7360 is being re-launched to match L'Amour's new theme. It'll roll for about €200, which buys you a meager 160 x 128 display, integrated FM radio, and a VGA cam.
The 7373 takes the 7370's philosophy and upgrades the latter's 1.3-megapixel cam to 2 megapixels for good measure. The rest of the spec sheets stays the same, as best we can tell: integrated stereo speakers, Bluetooth, 320 x 240 display, video support, and so on. Europeans should be able to get their swivel on for something in the neighborhood of €350.
The crown jewel of the trio is the €450 7390, Nokia's first L'Amour model to rock 3G data (because fashionistas need UMTS too, after all). Besides the WCDMA goodness, Nokia's blessed the 7390 with a 3-megapixel shooter and a rather generous display on its exterior, which also features dedicated music controls. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-05-the-hottest-arg-ever-lonelygirl15.html | 2006-09-05 15:58:00+00:00 | [] | Vladimir Cole | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | The hottest ARG ever: lonelygirl15 | At this point, internet starletLonelygirl15should need no introduction, least of all to net-savvy Joystiq readers. But if you've been asleep all summer, here's a brief intro: Lonelygirl15's Youtube videos have garnered over 18 million views. She's the second-most subscribed-to channel of all time on Youtube, and she's crazy cute to boot.
But she's not real. In fact, but she may be part of an alternate reality game (ARG).
Bree's ARG-ness isdiscussed in detailover at the Alternate Reality Gaming Network. Admittedly, the evidence that she's part of some big ARG (ZOMG! The Halo 3 launch?!) is rather flimsy, but if we went withmore mainstream conspiracy theories, we couldn't very well cover her on Joystiq now, could we?
Whatever the outcome, this whole episode shows how powerful storytelling and internet video might be interwoven to create compelling new forms of gaming that entertain millions of people who don't normally consider themselves gamers. The interaction between whoever's producing these videos (the game master) and the millions of players is intricate, exciting, and very game-like at heart. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-05-sony-announces-locationfree-lf-b10-lf-b20-and-lf-box1.html | 2006-09-05 16:32:00+00:00 | [] | Cyrus Farivar | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony announces LocationFree LF-B10, LF-B20 and LF-BOX1 | We haven't heard fromSony'sLocationFreesince 2005, but our best buds over in Japan have been busy on some new models since then -- and they look startingly like a shiny acrylicPS2. Today the company is announcing two new base stations, the LF-B10 and the LF-B20 (pictured above) and the LocationFree TV Box. The LF-B20, which goes for $250, also acts as aWiFiaccess point, whereas its less expensive sibling, the LF-B10, priced at $200, doesn't. Sony's LocationFree Box (dubbed the LF-BOX1) is a $230 receiver unit that will let you watch said content on an in-home television -- although it may work on your hotel's television too, should you be so inclined to take it with. That said, it's well possible that as an alternative, you'll have your PSP or a laptop with LFTV software on it, just like aSlingbox. The trio of LFTV units will be available next month, and are currently on pre-order from Sony's site. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-05-apples-iphone-the-rumor-resurrected.html | 2006-09-05 21:24:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Apple's iPhone: the rumor resurrected | We're hoping on hope that Apple launches theiPhoneat their event next week -- why? So we can stop reporting all this radio chatter about the damned thing and put it behind us already; it's been more than a year since the rumors really started flying, and as with just about every Apple event, now they're starting in again. TodayShaw Wu, the oft quoted Apple lovin' analystfrom American Technology Research, says it's to be believed that Apple's "near completion" of the production unit (which will take form as a candybar), and that the launch will go down next week, assuming the Jobs seal of approval. Now, truth be told, we've heard from some reliable sources that Apple's not waiting on the hardware, but on Cingular's HSDPA infrastructure, but whatever the case may be, we hope you'll be merciful on us for our reportage, we're trying to spare all but the most important stuff, ok? |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-06-playstation-3-launch-delayed-for-europe-and-others.html | 2006-09-06 08:42:00+00:00 | [] | Thomas Ricker | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | PlayStation 3 launch delayed for Europe and others | Oh man, not again. Sony just announced that the European launch of thePlayStation 3will be delayed. So instead of seeing aworldwide launchof the PS3 in early Novemberwhichnobody reallyexpected anyway, Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, and "Australasia" will see the console shipping in March. Sony blames the delay onproduction issues with blue laser diodesneeded for the Blu-ray (and HD DVD) Disc drives. Stockholders, beware.UPDATE:According to Kaz Hirai, the production issues with the blue laser diodes will also mean that North America and Japan can only expect 500,000 units at launch. As a result, Sony has officially reduced its estimate of 4 million consoles shipped by the end of calendar year 2006 to a more conservative 2 million.[ViaJoystiq] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-06-apple-spec-bumps-imacs-minis-adds-24-inch-imac.html | 2006-09-06 13:30:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Apple spec bumps iMacs, minis, adds 24-inch iMac | Well done, Steve, you've surprised us yet again. While we were sitting around bracing for another day filled with Apple rumors (e.g. "OMG! What's he gonna announce on the 12th? iPhone!!!!), Cupertino has gone and released some actual products today, including upgrades to the entire lineup ofiMacsandminis. Most exciting, perhaps, is the all-new 24-inch iMac (we were alllooking out for a 23-incher), complete with a 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, 1GB of RAM, 250GB HDD capacity, FireWire 800, and some of that sweet nVIDIA GeForce action in the form of a 128MB 7300GT graphics chipset. Besides the 24-incher, both the 17-inch and 20-inch models now come with Core 2 Duo standard (ranging from 1.83GHz to 2.16GHz), 160GB or 250GB worth of hard drive space, 512MB or 1GB of RAM, 8x dual-layer SuperDrive, and ATI Radeon X1600 graphics (except for the low-end 17-incher, which sports integrated graphics and just a 24x Combo drive, plus no bundled remote or Bluetooth 2.0). As for the minis, they're all part of the dual core family now as well, featuring 1.66GHz or 1.83GHz Core Duo CPUs, 512MB of RAM (2GB max), up to 160GB of hard drive capacity, either a Combo drive or a SuperDrive, but still just integrated graphics. Available immediately from Apple online or retail, pricing on the new models is as follows: $999 for the 1.83GHz 17-inch iMac, $1,199 for the 2.0GHz 17-incher, $1,499 for 20 inches of iMac goodness, and $1,999 for the 24-inch monster, while the minis start at $599 and $799, respectively, depending on the processor. So now the big question is: what IS going to be announced at the "It's Showtime" event? Damn, guess we're in for another week of rumors after all...Read- iMacRead- mini[Thanks to everyone who sent this in] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-06-the-mobile-mac-mini-robot-gets-it-some-wheels.html | 2006-09-06 15:30:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | The Mobile Mac mini robot gets it some wheels | Sure, those infernally cute desktop-boundMac minismight get all the ladies, but this here Mobile Mac mini bot hopes to make something of himself in the big city. His wheels are made for rolling,and that's just what he'll do, but he's also got a free-roaming video camera for beaming grainy webcam shots back to mission control. Along for the ride is a 7-inch touch screen, spiffy headlight, and IR range sensors to keep from bumping into things. The bot can be controlled via WiFi or Apple IR remote, and while there isn't much AI to speak of yet, there's plenty of potential with that plucky Mac mini at the helm.[ViaHack-A-Day] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-06-forget-smell-o-vision-usb-aroma-geur-lets-you-smell-the-radio.html | 2006-09-06 17:31:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Forget Smell-O-Vision, USB Aroma Geur lets you smell the radio! | We've secretly yearned for and yet simultaneously fearedSmell-O-Visionfor most of our waking life. The dual promise and threat of that kind of immersion into our entertainment is enough to drive a man wild, which is why we're glad they're taking some baby steps towards the future in Japan with the new "Aroma Geur" radio device. The USB-pluggin' sphere, due for launch in October, is designed to work with the Tokyo FM internet radio station, and has six oil-based scents which it can mix on demand. For extra wow-factor, the sphere lights up with random LED lights, and everything is synced up to the currently playing song for setting just the right mood. Of course, that mood will cost you 49,900 Yen (about $430 US), so it had better be some dang good mood. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-07-lifetime-tivo-subs-transferrable-to-series-3-for-a-price.html | 2006-09-07 13:59:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Lifetime TiVo subs transferrable to Series 3 -- for a price | Ever since TiVo realized that it was actually going to bearound for awhileand that lifetime subscriptionsno longer made financial sense, those subscribers already locked into the $300 lifetime deal found themselves in a bit of a quandary -- how would they be able to upgrade toSeries 3without becoming one of the plebes paying for service by the month? Well current Series 1 and 2 owners looking to get their HD recording on need no longer worry about losing their lifetime subs, thanks to a just-announced offer by TiVo that will allow them to transfer that all-you-can-eat goodness to newly purchased Series 3 boxes -- with a few catches, of course. The TiVo Community forums are buzzing about a recently-recorded Teleworld-broadcast promotion, wherein lifetime subscribers who purchase their Series 3 devices prior to December 31st can transfer those subscriptions before January 31, 2007 for exactly $199; and what's more, this offer gives them a full year of free service on the box that they already own. Yeah, we know, you'd think that paying$800 for a new DVRwould be enough to get those subs switched over for free, but considering that a transfer was previously thought to be impossible at any price, in the long run this is still a great deal -- plus, now the rest of us know thatSeries 3 will be availableby the end of the year at the latest. See, everyone wins.[ViaTiVoBlog] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-07-remastered-high-def-star-trek-details.html | 2006-09-07 18:31:00+00:00 | [] | Richard Lawler·Senior News Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Remastered high-def Star Trek details | Paramount Television has confirmed plans to remaster theoriginal Star Trek series in high definition, despite not having plans to broadcast it that way yet. The lack of HD Star Trek broadcasts is simply because most stations don't have space to store the episodes before they're aired several days later, but whenever the equipment is ready, the episodes will be as well. They're promising to remain faithful to the original series, and not to change any key elements in the programs, just adding things like a missing phaser beam, a new CGI Enterprise for external shots, and an updated picture of Earth. The show will be broadcast in 4x3, with 40 episodes shown each year. It will take about a year to remaster all 79 episodes, which begin airing September 16th, with "Balance of Terror".[Thanks, Tom]Read -Enterprise Wasn't Bumped for Trek, Says Nogawski - Broadcasting & CableRead -TOS Remastered - The Trek Movie Report |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-07-microsoft-cuts-xbox-360-by-85-in-japan.html | 2006-09-08 01:25:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Microsoft cuts Xbox 360 by $85 in Japan | It's one of the principles of supply and demand that as supply goes up while demand is down, the great equalizer is lowering the price; well, Microsoft finally has the supply they were after with the Xbox 360, but the demand sure as hell isn't there in Japan. So what's Redmond to do? Dump 'em off for about ¥29,800, or about $255, a solid $86 US off its current retail price and $45 less than in the US.First the UK, now Japan -- what's America got to do to catch a break with the 360, play hard to get and stop buying the damned things?[Thanks, theburn16]Update: Well wouldn't you know it, our Japanese bureau informed us that they aren't actually slashing the price, but are just introducing the Core system to the Japanese market. Still, it's at a price far less than that of its US counterparts -- and it kind of makes you wonder why they didn't launch the more affordable version over in the Japanese market to begin with. Japanese 360 buyers: it's coming your way November 2nd! |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-08-leet-hax0r-stuffs-a-kaoss-pad-into-his-les-paul.html | 2006-09-08 21:08:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Leet hax0r stuffs a Kaoss Pad into his Les Paul | If you're a Radiohead or Muse aficionado, you've probably considered matching some of theirKorg Kaoss Pad-generated sounds with your own guitar prowess. The Kaoss Pad generates all sorts of space age effects that can be naturally controlled through the touch-sensitive pad, and works fine right out of the box, but guitar hackin' Phil wasn't appeased. He found the effort to reach away from his guitar and fiddle with the Kaoss to be too immense, so instead he drilled a hole into his Epiphone Les Paul and mounted the touch pad right next to the bridge for ultimate access. The pad connects to the processing part of the Kaoss via a serial connection, but Phil did mount the box's "hold" button on the guitar for locking in effects. If none of this is making any sense to you, peep the YouTube video after the break and watch Phil shred on his new hacked-up axe.[ViaHack-A-Day] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-09-08-phat-loot-phriday-wirts-third-leg.html | 2006-09-09 01:26:00+00:00 | [] | Mike Schramm | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Phat Loot Phriday: Wirt's Third Leg | Last weekon our Phat Loot Pheature (ok, sorry, I know that's annoying, I'll stop), I promised we'd do something BOE. Now, there aren't a lot of BOE epics out there, but there is this nice mace, and it comes with quite a history.Name:Wirt's Third LegType:Rare One-hand MaceDamage, Speed:49-91, 2.30 (30.4 DPS)Abilities:
• +9 Agility, +4 Stamina
• Looks boring doesn't it? But wait, there's a story here...
• Way back inDiablo, Blizzard's classic hack and slash game, there was an NPC named Wirt, who had a wooden leg. He got killed, however, when Diablo attacked his town, Tristam, which was above the dungeons the player was hacking and slashing through.
• Then, in Diablo II, Wirt didn't return, but his leg did. On a mission back to Tristam, you could find his body, and loot Wirt's Leg. And not only that, but you could use his leg to findthe super secret Cow Level, in which you foughthordes of armed cows(no, we're not making this up). This is also why one of WoW's tips says "There is no secret cow level" (and why Techbot in Gnomer says something similar). And it also explains the origin of theCow King's Hidecloak, but that's for another Phat Loot Phriday.
• Finally, inthe Warcraft III expansion, a character called "The Butcher" (another reference to a Diablo character) guards a chest with an item called Wirt's Other Leg in it. That makes this one his third wooden leg that you can find.
• That's why they call this Wirt's Third Leg. No other reason, no matter how dirty a mind you have. Ask your mother.
How to Get It:This one's not hard to get at all. All you have to do is hit up the pirates through the cave on the eastern coast of Tanaris and eventually one of them will drop a footlocker with this thing in it. You won't have to try for too long, as this one seems to drop pretty often. Plus, from 40-45, the pirates make for good grinding anyway.Auction Price:You want to sell this? What will Wirt think?! On most servers, you'll be able to get rid of this pretty easy for 20-25g. If no one on the server has an appreciation of Blizzard history, you might have to drop it to 5g, but players have been able to see it for 50g before, so start higher if you want. A vendor will give you 1g 95s 77c to part with this phantastic relic! (gah, sorry, said I'd never do it again...) |
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