Hasta La Gadget!

Elite Screens announced at CES that its Raptor projection screen, an electric floor-rising screen that conceals itself in a functional furniture cabinet, is now available in black. Elite’s Raptor is especially useful in situations where wall or ceiling projection screen installations may not be practical, such as a hidden home theater or executive conference room.

Elite’s Raptor comes in three sizes: 72 inches, 84 inches or 100 inches (measured diagonally), with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s available with Elite’s MaxWhite FG fiberglass-backed material to provide a flat and easily visible surface in 1.1 gain. The Raptor is housed in a fully functional media cabinet that accommodates a variety of media players and software. Currently, furniture finish options are matte black or cherry wood.

We’re live from Dell’s early-morning Adamo press event at the Palms — we’re pretty much expecting them to reveal a slick 13-inch ultraportable, but we’ll see what other surprises are in store. We’re currently confined to suite across the hall where Dell’s plying the media with free omelettes, but we snuck into the event room for the shot above and saw what looked to be the XPS Studio 1340 and 1640 set up. We’ll be starting for real in just a few, keep it locked!

Continue reading Live from Dell’s Adamo press event!

Filed under: Laptops

Live from Dell’s Adamo press event! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unless you’re picking up a Mini 10 with an integrated TV tuner, you’ll need one of these (or something similar) in order to pull down OTA signals on your Inspiron Mini. Dell has just announced a thumb-sized USB digital TV tuner (complete with a built-in telescoping and articulating antenna that retracts) catering to the Inspiron family which will start at just $50. Also of note, the company is intending to offer “regional-specific versions of the Digital TV Tuner, designed to receive local broadcast standards, including mobile digital television standards like ATSC in the US, DVB-T in Western Europe, ISDB-T 1-seg (a.k.a. One Seg) in Japan, and the emerging CMMB standard in China.” It’ll play nice with the Dell-customized version of Ubuntu Linux (8.04), Windows XP and Windows Vista Basic, and it’s expected to ship later this quarter in Europe, followed by North America and Asia-Pacific / China soon after.

Filed under: CES, Peripherals, Portable Video

Dell USB Digital TV Tuner announced for Inspiron Mini family originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As promised, Verizon and Alltel tied the knot today, in a $5.9 billion acquisition, plus $22.9 billion of Alltel debt. Combined they form the nation’s largest wireless carrier, with 83.7 customers (12.9 of those from the Alltel fold). For the time being, Alltel customers can sit tight and continue to use their devices and service plans as usual, with re-branding operations to happen Q2 and Q3 of 2009.

Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon completes Alltel acquisition, now covers 83.7 million customers as nation’s largest wireless network originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The new version of Ford Sync, introduced this week at CES, isn’t just better Bluetooth and audio. It also represents a cheaper way to get navigation and driving information in your car. And most of all, it’s part of the car technology revolution where electronics trumps mechanical components.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally introduced Sync 3.0 with Traffic, Directions and Information in a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show yesterday. Sync will include an offboard navigation system that connects to your car via your Sync-connected Bluetooth cellphone and voice (or dashboard) inputs. You request trip directions from a Sync server, it downloads turn-by-turn information, and you navigate via text prompts (no moving map) on the radio display.

There’s also traffic information sent to your cellphone as text messages that can be read aloud by Sync, and the ability to get business information, weather, and sports scores. All this comes free for the first three years of ownership, after which there’s a monthly service charge that Ford says it hasn’t determined yet, or more likely just doesn’t want to discuss. Figure $10-$15 a month.