Hasta La Gadget!

A hot official copy of Windows 7 RC1 is on our desktop and we’re poking around. But here are the three best new new things in Windows 7 Build 7100. This crazy background? Baked in.

Stream Your Library Over the Internet With Windows Media Player
This is hot—it’d be hotter if it was easier to set up. Windows Media Player’s Remote Media Sharing will let you access your media library from anywhere over the internet. You need a Windows Live ID that you associate with your Windows 7 user account using a tool you have to download. (This could grow to include other “online identities,” like Facebook I’m guessing, but I wouldn’t hold your breath for your Gmail account.) You also need the same version of Windows Media Player running on both computers. After everything’s all associamated, then your home library you wanna stream from should show up just like a local library under the “Other Libraries” section in the side navigation pane. Can’t do this in iTunes, buddy.

Windows XP Mode
To encourage enterprise people to let loose and rock Windows 7, it runs a full-fledged Windows XP virtual environment using Microsoft’s Virtual PC. It requires an additional download (booo), but you won’t have to worry about your applications breaking like with Vista. Update: Paul Thurrott has more info and a huge walkthrough on XP Mode, including the crushing revelation it’s gonna be free for Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise and Ultimate, not Home Premium, which is the version regular people are going to be running.

The Most Insane Default Backgrounds Ever
Look at these. Yes, these are just a handful of the ridiculously awesome backgrounds packed inside Windows 7. Some are the products of acid trips through a nightmare land of anime hell that I would never wish on anybody, and some are simply stunning. Just wow. Click to make bigger, obvs. Update: Okay, the backgrounds were in some of the builds between the Public Beta and the upcoming RC, but they weren’t, you know, public. UPDATE: You can download all of them here. Or you can find them in the Gizmodo Flickr pool.

These are simply in addition to all of the new things we already knew about, like tweaks to Aero Peek, better shortcuts, UI improvements and of course, lots of bug squishing. We’ll be testing everything in depth soon! [Windows 7 Coverage at Giz]

Sure, the Nikon D5000 might have gotten itself a ship date today, but Canon’s Rebel T1i is doing one better and actually turning up in stores a couple weeks ahead of its scheduled mid-May debut. This particular specimen was spotted at Bromfield Camera in Boston, but we’d love to hear if you’ve seen this guy pop up elsewhere — let us know!

[Thanks, Conrado]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon Rebel T1i trickling out to stores originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last night I lost something very dear to me. While I was making my bed, my comforter bumped over a glass containing a tiny amount of water, which seeped right into my iPhone’s weak spot — the dock connector. The screen turned white followed by a series of fluorescent colors, as if my iPhone were seeing its life flash before its eyes. Then it shut off and wouldn’t turn on again. Just a year and a half old, my iPhone was dead.

I began treading through the five stages of loss and grief. First, I was in Denial that the damn thing was borked. I quickly immersed the phone in a container of dry rice — a moisture-pulling method many nerds preach about when it comes to reviving soaked electronics — and in the morning I checked to see if my poor iPhone would show any signs of life. No dice.

Then I succumbed to Anger. I cursed at the handset, shaking it accusingly as if it had purposely swallowed the deadly H2O to commit suicide. "Work, dammit, work!" I shouted.

After that failed, I slipped into Bargaining. "If only I owned a longer night stand so the water wouldn’t have reached the phone," I thought. "Or if only it were wearing protection."

I quickly sank into Depression and self-pity. "What lousy timing," I complained to Wired.com science editor Betsy Mason. "I’m flying to New York next week for business, and right now would be an incredibly stupid time to buy a new iPhone since the third-gen is probably coming out in two months. My life is a greek tragedy."

"Stop whining," she replied. "It’s just a phone."

"It’s not just a phone!" I cried. "It’s an iPod, a phone and an internet mobile communicator. It was my life in my pocket!"

"Oh, shut up."

Hours later, I circled around to Acceptance and started thinking of ways to move on. I reached out to my Twitter followers asking if anyone had a spare iPhone lying around. Fortunately Jason Snell, my former editor in chief at Macworld, was able to loan me an iPhone for a few days until I find a permanent solution.

And now that I’m done mourning, I’m reaching out to Wired.com readers so we can all learn something from my loss. What would you do with a drowned iPhone? I’m thinking selling it through the e-junk trader Gazelle is an option, though it won’t earn me much. E-mail your suggestions to bchen [at] Wired [dot] com. (Our comment system is temporarily disabled due to a system upgrade.)

Or, if you’re feeling super optimistic, feel free to send in any kooky methods you used to revive your soaked iPhones, and I might consider trying them and documenting my experience. I’ll leave mine buried in rice for a few more days, but I’m not getting my hopes up. 

Photo: Brian X. Chen/Wired.com

Watch what you say. Scientists in England have developed a computer that can not only read lips, but can tell the difference between languages.

Mouth movements can differ according to the language spoken.

(Credit: University of East Anglia)

Researchers at the University of East Anglia’s School of Computing Sciences …

Originally posted at Military Tech

Talk about things you never knew you didn’t want! If Mom hadn’t much use for a Nintendo DS Lite before, do you think that throwing in some cooking software is gonna change her mind? Neither do we. That said, if you’re really stuck for a Mother’s Day present (or just want one you can play Nintendogs on), this bad boy hits the shops May 3rd. You are now free to go back to reading Garfield Minus Garfield and counting down the minutes ’til Happy Hour.

Continue reading Nintendo rolls out lime green DS bundle just in time for Mother’s Day

Filed under: Gaming

Nintendo rolls out lime green DS bundle just in time for Mother’s Day originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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