Hasta La Gadget!

Ok, it’s just a scale model, but what you’re looking at is the first module from China’s budding Tiangong (meaning “Heavenly Place”) space station program. It was just revealed to the surprise and delight of Engadget Chinese during a TV special celebrating the Chinese New Year. The 8 ton module is scheduled to launch by 2010 with two more modules (Tiangong 2 and Tiangong 3) to follow by 2015 after which Taikonauts will begin to stay in orbit. For now, the endeavor is meant to prepare for automated docking trials and to establish a presence in space — a move that will undoubtedly scare the hell out of hawkish members of western governments.

Continue reading China’s Tiangong 1 space station unveiled for tiny Taikonauts

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

China’s Tiangong 1 space station unveiled for tiny Taikonauts originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

These new "carnival colored" PSPs from Sony should come in a selection box — they look good enough to eat. The rainbow-hued consoles will go on sale in Japan on March 19th for ¥19,800 ($223). Also available will be a kit, featuring a 4GB MemoryStick, a "private porch" (pouch) and a handosutorappu, which we believe to be a hand strap. The kit will go for ¥24,800 ($279).

To celebrate this Japan-only release, let’s have some further fun with Google Translate. The PSP-3000 is, apparently, designed "To further reduce image quality". Other essentials include " the guns and diamonds (tentative)" and "the distance investigation – to the truth 23 days". We know that that laughing at machine translations is a low form of humor, but these are great. In fact, we’re happy to help "spread more and more the world of entertainment".

Press release [Sony via Akihabara News]

Hacker Luke Hutchison has successfully brought multi-touch to the T-Mobile G1 Googlephone. The video shows that it’s a rather clunky implementation right now, but as Luke points out, this is v.1.0:

 

This is a proof of concept, people — of course it will be optimized over time — the fact it’s not done yet doesn’t mean it can’t be or won’t be. Apple’s engineers were paid mega moola to implement their bling, I was not.

How does it work? Luke has patched the Linux kernel of the Android OS to tweak the (Synaptics) touchpad driver. As this is a software only modification, we assume that the abilities to sense multiple fingers are built in to the hardware already.

You’ll also need modified applications to take advantage of the new multitouch capabilities. Luke has provided a browser, a maps application, a photo viewer plus the vector-style demo app you see in the video.

Best of all, you don’t need to do any hacking yourself. There’s a downloadable, pre-patched version of the firmware available, ready to be installed. Proceed with caution — you could kill your G-1, although you’ll probably be fine. Right up until you get sick of the clunky zooming and throw the phone out the window at least.

Get Multi-Touch Zooming Support on your T-Mobile G1 TODAY [Luke Hutchison via Boy Genius]

Ha, and you thought a 3DMark06 score of 5,086 was intense when AMD’s Phenom II was overclocked to a blistering 3.85GHz. Just after CES, a team of hardcore speed freaks with access to liquid nitrogen and liquid helium created an environment for OC’ing one of AMD’s latest Phenom II X4 chips in -232 degrees Celsius weather. Once the silicon was appropriately chilled, they proceeded to push the clock speed to a staggering 6.5GHz, which proved nimble enough to deliver a patently absurd 45,474 3DMark05 score. The best part? The adoring public was there to bear witness, and every nail-biting second of it is hosted up in the video just past the break.

[Via Digg]

Continue reading AMD’s Phenom II pushed to 6.5GHz, 3DMark record demolished

Filed under: Gaming

AMD’s Phenom II pushed to 6.5GHz, 3DMark record demolished originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

This is the Casio Memory B-1, a 30 year old calculator which, although it has sustained a few dents and scratches, works as well as the day it was born. And as you can see from the picture snapped via Skype last night, my father, despite being twice the age of the adding machine, still thinks like a schoolboy. Apparently he spent several hours yesterday working out rude words to write on the thing.

This calculator is still in frequent use, and why not? Here are the specs:

1 x cpu: NEC D1877C E87346, 28 pin DIL, 0.6" width
1 x 8 digit VFD display: flat faced glass unit; NEC FIP LD8225/FIP8A5 No. 8J, Japan
1 x transistor
8 x diodes
12 x capacitors
3 x resistors
1 x transformer

The display is clearly the best part, a bright and crisp vacuum fluorescent display (VFD). These glowing blue digits are related to both the nixie tube and the cathode ray tube found in older TVs. The Japanese made box also features two real aluminum panels and can be hooked up to the mains via a DC-in socket.

I don’t know what the best part of this is — my father’s nerdy schoolboy sensibilities, the fact that this retro tech has lasted so long, or the awesomeness that my dad thought it was ok to hijack my conversation with mother by holding the word BOOBS in front of her face. It’s lucky she hadn’t already started on the day’s gin ration, or he might have gotten a whack.

In-depth specs [Vintage Technology]