The transmitter and receiver of Sony's wireless HDMI system are both conspicuously antenna-free.
(Credit: CNET)
After years of fits and starts, the first wireless HDMI systems have finally hit the market. Sony’s DMX-WL1 is one of two such systems, along with the Gefen EXT-WHDMI, and after comparing …
If you’re planning to display a large image across several monitors–you know, maybe you’re into world domination–then a wide bezel is a problem. With a wide bezel, there can be as much as several inches between sections of the image.
This week, NEC announced the 46-inch MultiSync X461UN “…
That Dell is offering a 30 percent discount on refurbished XPS M1210 notebooks on Tuesday isn’t particularly novel. How Dell is communicating the offer is, however.
Fleeting deals now available exclusively through Dell Outlet's Twitter feed.
The deal is available on the Dell Outlet Web site Tuesday …
Video chat and recording? On the iPhone? Maaaaaybe. In our occupational obligation to bring you the dirty details on every last Apple patent comes this latest gem. Thanks again to the devoted digging of one blogger, a recent 355-page filing by the company has shed some light on the possibility of video recording and conferencing for the popular handset.
Says the patent of the device’s built-in video camera,
In some embodiments, the functions may include telephoning, video conferencing, e-mailing, instant messaging, blogging, digital photographing, digital videoing, Web browsing, digital music playing, and/or digital video playing. Instructions for performing these functions may be included in a computer-readable storage medium or other computer program product configured for execution by one or more processors.
You know, once in a while you hear such a logical, well-thought-out idea that you start to wonder, even fear, that society will end up heading down some sort of interesting and completely boring path to productivity and peace. This is not that idea. HarperCollins has restored our faith in the wonderful futility of humanity with “Video Books.” The publishing house is on the hook for six v-book versions of real books, which involve an ultra-abridged version of the title being spoken directly to the camera by the author. The first of these is Jeff Jarvis’ book What Would Google Do?, which is 23 minutes of the man speaking to your face in front of a white backdrop, and retails for $10. We were hoping for something a bit more like Reading Rainbow, but we must admit the two minute preview we saw was strangely compelling. Authors receive 25 percent of the sales, on par with e-book rates, but can you really put a royalty rate on the future?
Read – HarperCollins Tries ‘Video Books’
Read – What Would Google Do? V-Book
Filed under: Portable Video
V-Books: the future originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
An international report might have given away Apple’s plans to launch the next iPhone in June.
Etisalat, a mobile carrier in the Middle East and Africa, announced in a local newspaper that the iPhone 3G will soon be supported in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The report adds that "the next version of the device, which is due out in June, will be launched in the UAE at the same time."
The report doesn’t cite a source, but AppleInsider speculates the information came from Mark Davis, program director for iPhone at Etisalat, who previously confirmed the 3G’s Etisalat launch date to be Feb. 15.
A June launch date for the next iPhone isn’t very exciting news, as it’s kind of a no-brainer: The first and second iPhones launched in June 2007 and July 2008, respectively.
Little is known about Apple’s next iPhone, but some developers and analysts believe the new device will have a strong focus on gaming.
Photo: new-york-city/Flickr
Pleo, the adorable robotic dinosaur from Ugobe and the mind of Caleb Chung, is struggling to avoid Jurassic-like extinction.
As we noted late last year, Ugobe’s CEO Bob Christopher stepped down and the company moved its operation to Idaho (Pleo was on my “Maybe Buy” list for these and other reasons). Now Wired’s Gadget Lab reports that the company’s situation may have gone from bad to worse. Liz Gasper, who took over for Christopher and spent most of her time cutting costs, left the company in January.
Meanwhile, fund-raising efforts stalled and the entire Ugobe board resigned. Co-founder Caleb Chung is now back in charge, but he didn’t speak to Wired. Company President and COO Dough Swanson painted a rosy picture for Gadget Lab, telling the blog that, while the company has just 20 employees left, it still plans on delivering a Pleo update sometime in 2009. It’s unclear if that’s another one of the company’s semi-frequent Pleo software updates or new hardware.
While it could possibly have something to say on the matter at its big event next week, Amazon has so far been mum on the total number of Kindles sold, which has prompted folks like Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney to do their own digging / speculating to arrive at some hard numbers. Apparently, Mahaney was able to determine that Amazon sold about 500,000 Kindles in 2008 by examining the company’s agreement with Sprint, which seems to be a reasonable enough conclusion, although things get decidedly more speculative from there. According to Mahaney, the Kindle will be a $1.2 billion business for Amazon by 2010, assuming that the rate of adoption is similar to that of the iPod at the time of its introduction, and assuming that each Kindle user buys at least one book a month — two pretty big assumptions, to say the least. As you might have guessed, Mahaney also has a bit to say about the seemingly imminent Kindle 2.0, which he speculates will be thinner and longer than the current model, won’t boast a color screen or a touch screen, and possibly cost as low as $300. As they say, stay tuned.
Filed under: Handhelds
Citigroup analyst says 500,000 Kindles were sold in 2008 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Lite-On already makes a 6x internal Blu-ray recorder for PCs–how about putting one of those in a set-top box?
Back in our CES 2009 preview, we predicted that we might see a $150 Blu-ray player at the show, but the best we got were a pair for $200 units from …
A man in China died when his cellphone exploded, severing a major artery in his neck, according to a Chinese daily newspaper.
The man’s identity was not disclosed, but Shin Min Daily News reported he was an employee at a computer shop in Guangzhou, China, where the incident occurred.
Another employee at the shop said she heard a loud bang and then saw her co-worker lying on the shop floor in a pool of blood. She said the victim recently replaced the battery in his cellphone.
Chinese authorities are investigating the death and have yet to determine the model of the victim’s phone and battery, as well as whether they were counterfeit products.
In an eerily similar incident in July 2007, 22-year-old Xiao Jinpeng of Gansu, China died from chest wounds after his cellphone exploded in his chest pocket. The incident occurred at his workplace, an iron mill. The Chinese government speculated the phone’s battery exploded in reaction to the heat in the mill.
China has been under scrutiny for a number of years for exporting cheaply made products that pose safety risks. In July 2008, the BBC reported that hundreds of thousands of potentially electrocuting phone chargers were making their way from China into the UK. Some of the chargers were generically labeled "Travel Charger."
Man killed by ‘exploding mobile phone’ [TimesOnline]
Photo: A man’s cellphone battery exploded after leaving his handset on top of a table lamp. DavisSeal/Flickr
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